By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Tashkent : Iran has rejected the invitation to attend the the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit beginning here Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose country has an observer status at the SCO along with India, Pakistan and Mongolia, decided to snub the meeting after ties between Moscow and Tehran strained over the UN Security Council vote imposing fresh sanctions on Iran.
Twelve members of the 15-member UNSC voted for a resolution to impose the fourth set of sanctions on Iran Wednesday. The resolution was proposed by the world body’s five permanent members- the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia.
“No one cancelled an invitation, sent by the Uzbek hosts to President Ahmadinejad, it was his decision not to come,” Lavrov said.
Ahmadinejad “received an invitation in due time, like other participants, confirmed (his participation) and then it was up to him to decide,” he added.
Instead, the Iranian president will fly to China to visit the Shanghai Expo.
Iran has long been seeking membership of the six-member alliance which was established in 2001 to ensure security along the border between China and former Soviet republics.
Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are the founding members of SCO. Uzbekistan, which joined the organisation in 2001, holds the organisation’s rotating presidency this year.