"From Iran; the members of the Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, the Iran-Russia Friendship Group and the Parliament's Research Center are present in the Joint Iran-Russia working group," Sobhanifard said.
The Iranian lawmaker reiterated that the working group will convene every two months.
Sobhanifard, meantime, pointed to the status quo of Iran-Russia relations, and said, "Iran-Russia relations have considerably expanded over past few years; we have witnessed an increase of 120 percent in Iranians' visits to Russia, and the travel of Russian citizens to Iran has increased by 35 percent while the number of Iranian flights to Russia has also increased to 16 flights per week," Sobhanifard said.
In relevant remarks in late April, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that his country fully backs Iran's membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as all the West-imposed sanctions on Tehran have been lifted.
"Iran is now ready to be a full-fledged member-state of the SCO and that negotiations will be taken up in summer to bring the Islamic Republic to the fold," Lavrov said.
The Russian foreign minister reiterated that Iran has settled the problem of the UN Security Council sanctions and hence fully meets the SCO membership criteria.
"We hope that during their June summit in Astana, the heads of our states will be able to discuss the possibility of launching the procedure for admitting Iran into the organization as a full member," Lavrov added.
