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Iran to sign friendship agreement with Asean, Singapore says

Bloomberg Published on Mon, Jul 23, 2018 / 7:35 AM GMT+8

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SINGAPORE (July 20): Iran will sign a cooperation treaty with Southeast Asia at an upcoming meeting that will also be attended by US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and North Korean officials, a Singaporean diplomat said.

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. “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 comes two months after the Trump administration pulled the US out of an international nuclear agreement with Iran, and moved to choke off the Islamic Republic’s oil exports. The US is also trying to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear program, with President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un holding a unprecedented meeting in Singapore last month.