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curtailing its role in the Middle East (particularly with an eye on its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, hostility to Israel and roles, usually via surrogates, in various military conflicts).
'Meaningful momentum'
Raisi observed that Iran’s geopolitical position, sizable population of 84mn, energy supplies (second largest gas reserves and fourth biggest oil reserves in the world), transit potential, workforce and culture could give “meaningful momentum” to major regional trade
and investment masterplans, including China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
“The world has entered a new era,” Raisi said. “Hegemony and unilateralism
are failing. The international balance
is moving toward multilateralism and redistribution of power to the benefit of independent countries.”
“Unilateral sanctions are not against only one country as it has become evident in
recent years that sanctions have targeted more independent countries, especially members of the [SCO] organisation,” he said. Iran itself has endured heavy US sanctions since mid-2018 when ex-US president Donald Trump unilaterally walked out of the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal, or JCPOA, agreed between Iran and six world powers. The sanctions put the country through a bitter recession lasting nearly three years
from which it is only now emerging.
Despite Iran’s dissatisfaction that the Joe Biden administration has so far continued with the sanctions against Iran that it inherited from Trump, the Raisi government has said it will agree to restart the Vienna talks. The talks are aimed at finding a path on which both Iran and the US could return to full compliance and participation in
the nuclear deal. The deal was devised to provide verifiable guarantees that Iran’s nuclear programme stays entirely civilian in return for the dropping of
major sanctions against Tehran. As well as Iran, China, Russia, the UK, France and Germany remain signatories to
the accord.
In a jab at those who want Iran's nuclear development activities subjected to
even more stringent curbs than the JCPOA achieves, Raisi cautioned that "nothing can stop Iran's peaceful nuclear activities that are within the framework of international regulations".
Separately, the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) on September 17 detailed the level of trade that Iran and the SCO members saw
in the last Persian year (ended March 20. IRICA said trade with China stood at $18.9bn, with India $3.4bn, Russia $1.6bn, Pakistan $1.2bn, Uzbekistan $256mn, Kazakhstan $205mn, Kyrgyzstan $51mn and Tajikistan $24mn. For SCO observer states, the figures were Afghanistan $2.3bn, Belarus $30mn and Mongolia $3mn.
SCO leaders tell West to bite bullet and hand billions to Taliban
bne IntelIiNews
Leaders of the countries that surround Afghanistan on September 17 at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) annual summit offered plenty of advice on what should be done to prevent the Afghans from descending into a humanitarian disaster and falling into an economic hellhole, but offered next to nothing by way of action. Instead they made it plain that the US and other Nato countries that last month completed their hurried withdrawal from Afghanistan must now bear responsibility for providing the stricken nation a chance of securing an acceptable future.
The financial fortunes of the Islamist fundamentalists that have taken over the country, the Taliban, are of course built
on the production of opium and heroin. The Taliban are known as the world’s biggest drugs cartel and it was largely the illicit proceeds from the global trafficking of narcotics that financed the jihadist group’s 20-year fight to force the US
and its allies to leave Afghanistan. The major headache now is that the funding needed to stop Afghanistan potentially turning into an incurable narco-state that is a hive for terrorism has been frozen by Washington and international financial institutions. Handing billions of dollars to an organisation like the Taliban, even though presently they alone can offer the outside world a governmental structure to work with in Afghanistan, is a rather difficult prospect to swallow for Western capitals. Nevertheless, SCO member states, including Russia, China, Pakistan
and, quite vocally, Uzbekistan, urged the Western powers to do just that.
“Gradual unfreezing”
Addressing the SCO summit via video link, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he believed it “makes sense to work with the United States [and] other Western countries for a gradual unfreezing of Afghanistan’s reserves and restoring programmes through the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund”.
Blaming Washington in large part for the dire straits besetting Afghanistan, Putin added: "The main part of the expenses related to Afghanistan's post- conflict rebuilding should be borne by the United States and Nato countries
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