News ID: 218

Date: 29 January 2023 - 10:21

Constitutional Council okays bill on Iran’s accession to full SCO membership

The spokesman of Iran's Constitutional Council said the vetting body has approved the bill on the country's full membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

After reviewing the bill, the Council did not find it in contradiction with the Islamic law as well as the Constitution, Hadi Tahan-Nazif said on Saturday during a televised speech.

The Council had pinpointed some faults and ambiguities with respect to Articles 15 and 17 that were later addressed by the parliament, he added.

Iran signed a memorandum of commitments to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in mid-September, 2022, at the Samarkand summit.

The draft legislation outlining Iran's membership in the organization had been later submitted to the Iranian parliament for approval. In order to be able to approve it, the parliament had sent it to the Constitutional Council to review the bill with regard to its constitutionality and its congruence with Islamic law per Article 4.

Iran, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, India, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan are its current full members. Afghanistan, Belarus, and Mongolia are observer states.

The SCO accounts for 40 percent of the world's population and 28 percent of the global gross domestic product (GDP).