Mehdi Safari made the remarks during a radio interview on Saturday. 

“We are trying to convince the members of this group, which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, to accept Iran’s membership,” he said. 

According to Safari, the Iranian foreign minister and secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) attended the recent meetings of the BRICS Group and President Ebrahim Raeisi will also attend the group’s meetings in the future. 

Stressing that Iran has very good economic relations with the member countries of the group, including China, Russia and India, he added that Iran seeks to expand economic relations with other members, including Brazil and South Africa. 

Safari stated that last year, Iran’s trade relations with Brazil stood at $6 billion, adding that that amount of trade relations is increasing.

Stating that several countries are applying to join the BRICS, he noted that among these countries, Iran is the only one that has a good business relationship with the members of the group.

Answering a question on whether the existing sanctions against Iran will have an effect on Iran’s BRICS membership, Safari said that so far there has been no obstacle in the way of Iran’s membership process.

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