| Tuesday, April 18, 2006 |
| Friends |
Iran has them:
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which maintained it had no plans for expansion, is now changing course. Mongolia, Iran, India and Pakistan, which previously had observer status, will become full members. SCO's decision to welcome Iran into its fold constitutes a political statement. Conceivably, SCO would now proceed to adopt a common position on the Iran nuclear issue at its summit meeting June 15.
Speaking in Beijing as recently as January 17, the organization's secretary general Zhang Deguang had been quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying: "Absorbing new member states needs a legal basis, yet the SCO has no rules concerning the issue. Therefore, there is no need for some Western countries to worry whether India, Iran or other countries would become new members." So who is the SCO?
The SCO, an Intergovernmental organization whose working languages are Chinese and Russian, was founded in Shanghai on June 15, 2001 by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The SCO's change of heart appears set to involve the organization in Iran's nuclear battle and other ongoing regional issues with the United States.
Visiting Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mohammadi told Itar-TASS in Moscow that the membership expansion "could make the world more fair". And he spoke of building an Iran-Russia "gas-and-oil arc" by coordinating their activities as energy producing countries. Mohammadi also touched on Iran's intention to raise the issue of his country's nuclear program and its expectations of securing SCO support.
The timing of the SCO decision appears to be significant. By the end of April the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to report to the United Nations Security Council in New York regarding Iran's compliance with the IAEA resolutions and the Security Council's presidential statement, which stresses the importance of Iran "reestablishing full, sustained suspension of uranium-enrichment activities".
The SCO membership is therefore a lifeline for Iran in political and economic terms. The SCO is not a military bloc but is nonetheless a security organization committed to countering terrorism, religious extremism and separatism. SCO membership would debunk the US propaganda about Iran being part of an "axis of evil". And the bottom line is that many in the Central-Asia region believe the U.S. is pressing the Iran nuclear issue for the sole purpose of creating a pretext for invasion and "regime change" in Iran, something the neocons have long contemplated, following an invasion of Iraq and establishment of permanent military bases there, from which to launch operations against Iran, Syria, and other Muslim countries. The other interesting aspect of the new additions is the inclusion of both India (which has a brand new nuclear deal with the U.S., yet to be ratified by Congress) and Pakistan, which doesn't, but which does have nukes. The access to technology sharing and other benefits that will come to Iran via this new partnership with no fewer than four nuclear powers is significant, and it creates an alliance that will severly challenge the West.
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Tags: Iran, Foreign Policy, Bush administration, Nukes, Nuclear, War |
posted by JReid @ 1:22 AM   |
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