Political obstacles to Iran's membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) have been removed, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani said on Wednesday, according to IRNA.
"An hour ago, in a talk with my friend and colleague Secretary of Russia’s Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, we discussed the situations in Afghanistan, Syria, and the Persian Gulf," Ali Shamkhani wrote on his Twitter account.
Fortunately, political obstacles to Iran's membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization have been lifted and Iran's membership will be finalized through technical formalities, he further noted.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization currently has eight full members — China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia are four observer states, and SCO’s dialogue partners include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey. ACEAN, CIS, Turkmenistan and the United Nations are guest attendances
