Iran slams Israel, West at China-led SCO economic bloc meeting

Iranian Defense Minister Reza Ashtiani slammed Israel, the US, NATO and the West at a meeting with counterparts in Astana in Kazakhstan. The meeting was part of the 21st meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) defense ministers. The SCO is a group Iran recently joined.

The SCO was established by China in 1996 and initially consisted of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan. This was a way for China to expand its influence into Central Asia during the years when China was biding its time and growing its influence slowly.

Today China is seeking to become a global power, more assertive than in the past. Iran has signed a 25 year deal with China. China is backing Russia and Russia’s war in Ukraine. China offered the US an apparent olive branch in a recent meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Beijing on April 26.

China extending olive branch to the US?

But China also noted that relations could get worse. Iran wants US-China relations to get worse and it is also seeking to exploit the war in Gaza to create a new regional and world order.

As such Iran used the recent SCO forum to slam Israel and the West. The SCO is expanding, it has brough in new states such as India and Pakistan and other countries. “Ashtiani lashed out at the hegemonic policies of the West and NATO, saying those policies have led to wars and crises in the region,” Iran’s Fars News noted. Ashtiana bashed ISIS as a terrorist threat as well.

“Pointing to the Israeli regime's genocide and onslaught against Palestinians in the past seven months, he said Israel is committing these crimes in the light of full-fledged support by some countries and inaction of the international organizations. Ashtiani touched upon the Zionist regime's fatal attack on the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital, adding the Islamic Republic's response to the aggression was a warning aimed at deterrence,” Fars News noted.

“General Ashtiani went on to say that undoubtedly the root cause of many of the crises and wars particularly those over the recent decades lies with hegemonic and dominance-seeking policies of the west and NATO, citing the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine and Palestine,” the report said.

Meanwhile Iranian Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian phoned his Portuguese counterpart Paulo Rangel on Friday, and also slammed Israel. “The Iranian diplomat emphasized that the Israeli regime is the root cause of all problems and the precarious situation in the region.” Portugal has sought a ceasefire in Gaza, a report at Fars News noted.