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

According to Islamic Republic News Agency, the summit took place in the city of Khankendi on July 3-4, where a Chair’s Summary was issued by the host country, the Azerbaijan Republic. The communiqu© included expressions of concern about a recent military operation carried out by Israel against Iran and called for resolving differences through dialogue and diplomatic means.

Elaborating on the communiqu©, Azarsa mentioned that, based on the host’s earlier proposal, the summit of ECO heads of state did not intend to issue a final statement, resulting in a Chair’s Summary being released instead. He clarified that none of the member states participated in drafting the Chair’s Summary text, which was released by Azerbaijan based on its decision and discretion, a day after the summit concluded. Consequently, it was not a negotiated text reflecting the views of all participating countries.

Azarsa further noted that 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 state, would be appropriately reflected in the Chair’s Summary. Additionally, he pointed out that certain phrases regarding developments in the South Caucasus region mentioned in the Chair’s Summary do not represent the collective position of the member states.

He also stated 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, mentioned 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.