President Hassan Rouhani has called on the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to take collective measures to counter the West's sanctions.
The West has turned the sanctions into a "destructive weapon" and is using them as a "tool", which can be used against any member of the international community, including the members of the SCO, Rouhani said on Friday in his speech at the SCO summit in the Tajik capital Dushanbe.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran believes that the campaign against sanctions should be adopted as one of the policies of the organization and its members and that the relations between the member states should be regulated free from cruel pressure imposed by sanctions," he said.
Elsewhere, Rouhani pointed to the UN resolution which was adopted last year based on his World Against Violence and Extremism (WAVE) proposal and said the world is gaining a deeper understanding of the "evil phenomenon".
He said the SCO member states are more or less faced with the dangers posed by extremism and terrorism, so they should work together to combat the issues.
Thoughtful planning, bilateral and multilateral cooperation, political interaction, exchange of intelligence, efforts to combat poverty, and support by heads of state of members states are required to prevent the spread of terrorism and extremism.
Since the onset of the new wave of crisis in the region, Iran has been insisting that the repercussions of supporting terrorism and extremism will eventually engulf the region, but some regional and international players provided extremist groups with financial, military, and intelligence assistance.
"Today's crisis in Iraq is the evil legacy of the expansionist powers' past performance," he said.
"The epicenter of the crisis in the region" has become a center which attracts extremist and terrorist groups, he said, adding consensus, serious will, and collective regional and international measures are required to help resolve the crisis.
If the crisis is not properly addressed, it has the potential to present threats to the whole region and other parts of the world.
