WASHINGTON, June 16 (RIA Novosti) - The presence of Iran's president at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is a breach of the aims of the organization, the U.S. State Department said Friday.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended the sixth annual summit of the regional security and economic forum, which comprises Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Russia, China, and Uzbekistan, and in which Iran holds observer status along with Pakistan, India, and Mongolia.
U.S. State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said the presence of Iran, which he described as a leading state sponsor of terrorism, contradicted the anti-terrorist efforts that the SCO nations had declared their priority.
As one of the six negotiators on Iran's controversial nuclear research program, the U.S. has been pushing for UN economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic, which says it is enriching uranium for civilian projects only.
McCormack said the U.S. was ready to support the SCO in principle, but added that some of the organization's moves in practice contradicted its declared objectives.
He also said the U.S. did not consider the SCO to be an anti-American organization, but said Washington was not interested in membership or observer status in the group.
McCormack said earlier that the United States wanted an explanation from Russia over Ahmadinejad's arrival at the SCO summit, concerns dismissed by Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
"Iran has observer status in the SCO, and in this capacity he [the Iranian president] was invited to the summit," Lavrov said.
