Iran signs memorandum to join Shanghai Cooperation Organization

Iran has officially joined the countries under the central Asian security group, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Tehran signed the memorandum of obligations this week during a summit in Uzbekistan.

Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian announced that Tehran had signed the Memorandum of Obligations to become part of the eight-member Shanghai Cooperation Organization or SCO.

The announcement follows the summit of the group’s eight member countries: Russia, China, Uzbekistan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Pakistan, in Samarkand.

“By signing the document for full membership of the SCO, now Iran has entered a new stage of various economic, commercial, transit, and energy cooperation,” said Amirabdollahian.

“The relationship between countries that have been sanctioned by the US, such as Iran, Russia, or other countries, can overcome many problems and issues and make them stronger,” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi told Russian leader Vladimir Putin during a meeting in Uzbekistan.

“The Americans think whichever country they impose sanctions on, it will be stopped, their perception is a wrong one,” said Raisi.

The body was founded by Russia and China to counter the influence of the West. Afghanistan, Iran, Belarus, and Mongolia are observers in the regional security body, while the SCO has six countries as its “dialogue partners”, namely Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Turkey.

The SCO approved Iran’s application to become a member last year, as Tehran called on the group’s members to help in forming a mechanism to avert the sanctions imposed on Iran by the West over its nuclear program.

The latest sanctions Washington has imposed on Iran target 10 individuals and two entities that are allegedly connected to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and are involved in “malicious” cyber attacks, including ransomware.

The US Treasury issued the statement Wednesday, accusing a “group of Iran-based malicious actors” of compromising networks in the United States and in other countries since 2020.

The latest sanctions follow the pressure the US has placed on Iran’s intelligence and security ministry in response to a cyberattack on Albanian government websites, in which Tirana blamed Tehran.

The Iranian government has denied any involvement in the cyberattack that took place in July.