Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will sign the document at a gathering of Association of Southeast Asian Nations foreign ministers starting on July 30 in Singapore, Ong Keng Yong, the city-state’s non-resident ambassador to Iran, said in an interview with Bloomberg. “The Asean countries welcome anyone who wants to sign onto the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation,” said Ong, a former Asean secretary general.
The Asean meeting will also be attended by US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and North Korean officials, the Singaporean diplomat said.
The Asean meeting comes two months after the Trump administration pulled the US out of an international nuclear agreement with Iran also knows as the JCPOA, and moved to choke off Iran’s oil exports. The other signatories to the JCPOA, namely Russia, China, the UK, France and Germany, have strongly objected to the US’s withdrawal, and vowed to make every effort to preserve the deal by providing a mechanism to safeguard Iran's economic interests.
KI/PR