Recent ECO summit communiqué was not a statement negotiated by all members: Iranian official

Head of Iran’s Foreign Ministry’s Department of ECO and Multilateral Economic Organizations, Behzad Azarsa, has provided insights on the final communiqué of the 17th summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), which was held in Azerbaijan earlier this month.

The summit was held in the city of Khankendi on July 3-4, and a Chair’s Summary was issued by the host country, the Azerbaijan Republic.

The communiqué, among other things, “expressed concern by the recent military operation” carried out by Israel against Iran and “called to resolve any differences through dialogue and diplomatic means.”

Elaborating on the communiqué, Azarsa told IRNA that, in accordance with the host’s earlier proposal, the summit of ECO heads of states did not intend to issue a final statement, and a Chair’s Summary was released instead.

Therefore, he added, none of the member states participated in drafting the Chair’s Summary text, which was released by Azerbaijan based on its own decision and discretion, a day after the summit was concluded.

Consequently, it was not a negotiated text reflecting the views of all participating countries, Azarsa explained.

In the meantime, he said, it was expected that certain sensitive issues, including the Israeli regime’s military aggression against Iran, which had been explicitly addressed in speeches of the ECO heads of states, would be appropriately reflected in the Chair’s Summary.

Furthermore, certain phrases regarding developments in the South Caucasus region, which were mentioned in the Chair’s Summary, do not represent the collective position of the member states, Azarsa said.

He also said that Iran’s concerns regarding those issues have been communicated to Azerbaijan, the ECO Secretariat, and other member states.

President Masoud Pezeshkian, who attended the summit on July 4, said after returning from Azerbaijan that all the countries present at the summit strongly condemned the war of aggression Israel launched against Iran in mid-June.