TEHRAN - Iran’s official membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and its significant presence in the latest meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in Baku are being seen as a great diplomatic achievement for the country based on the current world affairs. 

The transition of the new world order which will shift power from the West to the East is seen as an opportunity for Iran to become an important force in West Asia. Regional and Western media have recently talked a great deal about Iran’s anticipated role in the future of the region.

The Jerusalem Post which is an Israeli outlet published a report on July 9th to address Iran’s official membership in the SCO. It called Iran’s incorporation into the bloc a source of great concern which would put American interests in West Asia under threat.  It also warned that the occurrence would specially jeopardize the position of Israel in the region.

“As Iran formally integrates into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a growing concern is spreading across the Western world, primarily due to the multifaceted implications of Iran’s growing military ties with Russia and China. The issue becomes even more troubling with the scheduled ending of UN restrictions on Iran’s ballistic missile testing and transfers this coming October”.

The Jerusalem Post claimed that Iran’s membership in the SCO would give it a freer hand to openly trade arms with Russia and China, and other SCO countries and that will eventually result in Iran expanding its influence in the region. It urged Western governments to be wary of Iran’s strategic growth in West Asia.

“Iran’s admission to the SCO represents a significant foreign policy achievement for the Islamic Republic. This is particularly noteworthy as it is the first time the regime has joined a regional pact since its establishment in 1979. This integration can help Iran break free from its economic and diplomatic isolation. In fact, that Iran has been granted full membership in the SCO suggests that other member countries are also open to engaging with it”.

The report also addressed the future effects of Iran’s full SCO membership on its ties with India: “Membership in the SCO will also empower the Iranian government to broaden its military cooperation with India. The two countries, already engaged in a comprehensive partnership, are striving to extend their bilateral military collaboration into new areas, which include joint naval exercises and arms trade”.

American magazine Newsweek has also covered Iran’s presence in the Non-Aligned Movement meeting in Baku extensively. The Non-Aligned Movement is a forum of 120 countries that make up 2/3 of the members of the United Nations and can have a determining effect on what’s going on around the world. The organization backed Iran’s peaceful nuclear program when Tehran and the West were heavily at odds over the program in 2012. 

The Non-Alignment Movement was formed to find a solution to end the cold war and it seems the entity has stayed true to its primary purpose to a great extent. 

“Just one day after becoming the ninth member of a regional security bloc led by China and Russia, Iran began utilizing an even broader multilateral platform in a bid to reestablish itself on the world stage against U.S. attempts to isolate the Islamic Republic. After the 120-nation Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) wrapped up its two-day ministerial summit in Azerbaijan on Thursday, Tehran appeared well-poised to continue to its diplomatic rally under President Ebrahim Raisi”.

Newsweek also claimed that “Iran under Raisi is trying to join regional alliances, as it believes that there is a new world order and in this order, multipolarity dominates the unipolarity of the U.S. after the collapse of the USSR. During the Cold War in which the United States and the Soviet Union vied for global influence, the NAM emerged in 1961 as a forum for nations seeking to forge a third path. The movement gained traction throughout the decades, with Iran joining upon its Islamic Revolution in 1979, but it struggled to retain its geopolitical weight in the post-Cold War era. Today, however, the NAM is one of several venues in which nations across the Global South, including Iran, are seeking to assert their international presence”.

“Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian's participation in the latest NAM event comes in the immediate aftermath of Iran's accession to full membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a group comprised of China, India, Pakistan, Russia and the Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as amid Tehran's application to join BRICS, an economic coalition also comprised of China, Russia and India, as well as Brazil and South Africa,” Newsweek added.

The magazine concluded that Iran’s ascension to SCO and BRICS is a political message from the country to the U.S. and EU, saying it can come out of isolation without reviving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. It said a number of U.S. partners such as India which is currently the chair of both the SCO and the G20, and Saudi Arabia, which resumed ties with Iran as part of a China-brokered deal in March, have also applied for SCO and BRICS partnerships and have emphasized their commitment to strategic autonomy in global affairs.

"Iran is playing the long game to be at a state of strategic advantage by tapping into the window of opportunity being provided by inductions into multilateral bodies such as SCO and BRICS. In this way, it benefits accrued can be in both forms, tangible as well as intangible in positioning Iran as a viable power fulcrum in Middle East and Eurasia".

 The incorporation of Iran into SCO and its presence in the Non-Aligned movement meeting do not bode well for the world order established after the cold war. Western media sees Iran’s recent diplomatic gains as a sign that U.S. can no longer impose its demands on other countries and that the invincibility of its hegemony has almost come to an end. 

Iran like important world actors such as China and Russia seek to elevate its position in the international scene and have a more effective role. These countries have ramped up efforts to make a new world order. The formation of BRICS and SCO, de-dollarization to scrap unilateral sanctions by the U.S., and plans to create a common currency in SCO are parts of the steps countries challenging the U.S. hegemony have taken. 

The cooperation between Iran, China and Russia could also be aimed at increasing the three countries’ military influence in different regions of the world. As reported by American media, the group of countries are trying to form an “Eastern NATO bloc” through various weapons deals in the SCO. 

The cooperation between emerging world powers, like Iran and India, and traditional ones, like China and Russia, which are gaining back their strength can have great consequences for the U.S. in the Persian Gulf as well as a massive zone in the Indian Ocean.