He said that with continued efforts of Cabinet ministers of the two countries, Iran and Syria are witnessing progress in implementing the agreements.

The minister said the agreements include establishing a joint insurance company, an agreement for trade in the national currencies of the two countries and the launch of a program for visits by Iranian pilgrims to Syria.

Amirabdollahian also strongly condemned the repeated attacks by the Zionist regime on Syria, saying that the regime is the main source of instability in the region.

The military presence of foreign countries in Syria will not contribute to stability and security in this country and the region, the top Iranian diplomat said.

He added that Iran understands the concerns of Turkiye regarding the security of the common borders with Syria, but said that military presence in Syria will not be a solution.

Mekdad, for his part, expressed his satisfaction with his visit to Iran and his meeting with Amirabdollahian, saying that the Syrian people are pleased with the trip that President Raisi had in early May to Syria.

While referring to the significance of the Syrian delegation’s visit to Tehran and its role in deepening ties between the two countries, he underlined that Raisi’s visit to Syria was not only for solving economic issues but also for deepening political and international cooperation in the region.

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As Iran and Uzbekistan are going to hold meetings of the Cooperation Joint Commission during the presidential visit, a total of 18 documents and memoranda of cooperation will be signed between the two states, Gholamhossein Esmaeili said.

He also noted that Raisi is scheduled to hold separate meetings with his counterparts from Russia, China, India and other countries taking part in the SCO summit.

While the generalities of the process of Iran’s accession to the SCO have been approved last year, the main document on Iran’s membership in the SCO will be signed by the foreign ministers of the member states this year, he noted.

After signing its first memorandum of obligations at the upcoming summit in Samarkand, Iran’s accession to the full membership of the organization will be finalized by April 2023.

The Eurasian political, economic, and security alliance was formed in 2001 by Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan at a summit held in Shanghai.

China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, India, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan are its current full members. The Islamic Republic of Iran was accepted as a main member of the SCO by the vote of all member states at the conclusion of the 21st summit in Dushanbe in September 2021.

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

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Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan convened a security meeting of the country’s high-level officials early in the morning on Tuesday. The meeting of Armenia’s Security Council was held with the participation of Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan and the President of the National Assembly Alen Simonyan in addition to the Security Council members.

A statement put out by the Armenian premiership said Azerbaijan launched “aggressive actions” against Armenia’s sovereign territory, a move that prompted Yerevan to officially apply to the Russian Federation for the implementation of the provisions of the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, to the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the UN Security Council.

On the other hand, Azerbaijan offered a completely different account, saying Armenia launched large-scale provocations in the directions of Dashkasan, Kalbajar and Lachin on the Azerbaijan-Armenia state border. “Death toll of Armenian armed forces amounted to 150-200 people, and hundreds of Armenian soldiers were injured following an unsuccessful provocation attempt against Azerbaijan,” Azerbaijani news agency Trend reported.

Iran, a longtime mediator in the South Caucasus region, was quick to call for peace and dialogue. Nasser Kanaani, the spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry, expressed concern about the escalation of border tensions and clashes between Yerevan and Baku, calling for restraint and resolution of disagreements between the two countries through peaceful means and based on international law.

He reiterated Iran’s longtime position that international borders in the region must be respected. “Iran considers any change to the borders between the Azerbaijan Republic and the Republic of Armenia as unacceptable,” he said in a statement.

He also said that Iran is closely watching the relevant developments, stressing the need for respect for the territorial integrity of both the Azerbaijan Republic and the Republic of Armenia.

This position was once again reiterated in the phone call between Iranian President Ayatollah Seyed Ebrahim Raisi and Pashinyan. Underling that security in the Caucasus region is very important for the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Raisi told Pashinyan, “The Caucasus region is going through special conditions and unfortunately, peace has not returned to this region yet.”

Noting that Iran is watching the situation in the Caucasus region, President Raisi said, “The region cannot tolerate another war.”

He added, “The historical borders of Iran and Armenia are considered the bedrock of prosperity, convergence and security of the region, and Tehran is determined to continue cooperation in all fields for the benefit of the prosperity and stability of the region.”

The latest flare-up once again aroused concern about the possibility of cutting the Iran-Armenia border, something that Iran clearly rejected and continues to reject.

Iran, while seeking good neighborly ties with both Armenia and Azerbaijan, has said that it will not accept any geopolitical changes in the South Caucasus region. The highest political echelons in Tehran have underlined the need to keep the status quo on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.

The Republic of Azerbaijan has been overtly calling for the establishment of a land corridor linking the autonomous enclave of Nakhichevan to mainland Azerbaijan, which virtually will cut the Iran-Armenia border.

In a July meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Tehran, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei made it clear that Iran will not accept such a geopolitical development. “The Islamic Republic will not tolerate policies or plans that lead to the closing of the Iran-Armenia border,” the Leader said.

Ayatollah Khamenei reiterated this position in a separate meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “Of course, if there is a policy intended to block the Iran-Armenia border, the Islamic Republic will oppose it, for this border has been a connecting route for thousands of years,” he said.

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Highlighting the efforts made in the past months to strike a deal, the Iranian foreign minister said the “password to achieving the desirable point” in concluding an agreement is “the United States’ focus on realism and demonstration of the necessary resolve.”

Iran has got the required determination and goodwill to reach the final step in striking a good, strong and sustainable agreement, Amirabdollahian underlined.

He also pointed to the quarterly meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors in Vienna, warning the board that issuing “an unconstructive statement” against Iran will be of no avail.

For his part, Oman’s Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi highlighted the importance of reaching a deal in the JCPOA talks and the return of all parties to their commitments.

The senior Omani diplomat also hailed Iran’s constructive role in the talks, stressing the need for the efforts to obtain positive results from months of negotiations.

The United States, under former president Donald Trump, left the nuclear deal in 2018, returning the sanctions that it had lifted.

The Austrian capital of Vienna has been hosting many rounds of talks since last year to examine the prospect of the deal’s restoration and fresh removal of the inhumane and illegal economic bans.

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“The U.S. should not play with fire on issues concerning China’s core interests,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson has said. The just-concluded U.S.-ASEAN summit is widely seen as an attempt by the world’s sole superpower to pull members of the bloc into its camp against a rising China. #GLOBALink

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Thousands of people took to the streets in Los Angeles on Saturday as part of a nationwide effort to protect abortion rights amid the controversy triggered by news that the U.S. Supreme Court could overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

Saturday’s protest drew a massive crowd gathering outside Los Angeles City Hall since morning. More than a dozen of politicians, including Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Senator Alex Padilla, took to the stage and delivered speeches.

“I was proud to join Angelenos at the Bans Off Our Bodies Rally to stand in support of women and reproductive access. Reproductive rights are fundamental human rights. This is the fight of our lives, and we need to unite & ensure we do all we can to protect our future,” Garcetti tweeted.

“Wealthy women and well-connected women will have the resources to travel to another state to have an abortion, while women of color, poor women of color across this country, are going to suffer and are going to die as a consequence,” Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez said at the rally.

“Women of color have limited access to resources and cannot afford to take one day out of work to go have a procedure in another state,” she said.

The Women’s March Foundation, which organized the event, said it received more than 50,000 signups for the “Bans Off Our Bodies” rally.

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An 18-year-old U.S. white man was arraigned on Saturday night hours after shocking the nation by live-streaming his mass shooting at a supermarket in the city of Buffalo.

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Zahari Zahariev, Chairman of Bulgaria National Association for the Belt and Road, says that the CPC is a party for the people, which focuses on interests, expectations, views and creative impulse of Chinese society. #GLOBALink

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A commemoration was held on Saturday in Belgrade to remember three Chinese journalists killed in the NATO bombing of the former Chinese embassy in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999.

Representatives of Serbia and China commemorated the Chinese martyrs and condemned NATO’s “barbaric act.”

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A cave exploration team has discovered a giant karst sinkhole in Leye County of south China’s Guangxi, bringing Leye’s number of such sinkholes to 30. #GLOBALink

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