TEHRAN – Iranian Ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali has met with the Russian president’s Special Representative for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Bakhtiar Hakimov, discussing Tehran’s cooperation with the organization.

Hakimov said Russia supports Iran’s full membership in the SCO, ISNA reported on Saturday.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has supported Iran’s full membership in the SCO.

“Iran is an observer and we are supportive of the Iranian request for full membership,” CNS News quoted him as saying on Friday during a speech at a geopolitics forum in New Delhi.

He added, “And most of the [SCO] countries support this request and I’m sure this would be satisfied.”

The SCO is a Eurasian political and economic organization that was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and India are its main members, and Iran, Mongolia, Afghanistan, and Belarus are observers.

NA/PA