SCO Foreign Ministers Fail to Agree on Iran's Membership – Source

The member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) failed to reach a consensus on Iran’s membership of the organization, a source at one of the delegations present at the SCO foreign ministers’ meeting told Sputnik on Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Svetlana Alexandrova — Iran currently has an observer status within the organization, alongside Afghanistan, India, Mongolia and Pakistan.

"It was an intensive debate but it was not agreed upon [what] the process of Iran's accession to SCO [should be]. The process is under study as Iran [is] under sanctions," the source said.

On Wednesday, the foreign ministers of the SCO countries gathered in Moscow for a conference to discuss a number of issues of mutual interest for all member states.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the SCO might raise the status of Iran after the Iranian nuclear issue had been resolved.

Iran is currently under international sanctions over its controversial nuclear program, with global mediators trying to ensure the peaceful nature of Tehran's nuclear activities.

In April, Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, comprising Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, France and Germany worked out a political framework agreement, under which Tehran pledged to cut back its uranium enrichment levels and decrease the number of centrifuges in the country, in exchange for gradual easing of the international sanctions.