SCO counter-terrorism exercise: How important is it to Iran?

2025-12-04 08:01:03, Kosova & Bota CNA

Iran's first counter-terrorism drill within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is less about joint military force and more about sending a signal: Tehran wants the world to see it as strategically important, even if the exercise itself demonstrates little real multilateral capability.

The five-day "Sahand 2025" exercise, within the framework of the SCO's Regional Counter-Terrorism Structure (RATS), began on December 1 at the base of the Imam Zaman Mechanized Brigade of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Shabestar district, East Azerbaijan province, near Iran's northwestern borders.

According to the Revolutionary Guard, the exercise involves participants from SCO member states – Belarus, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – and observer states and focuses on joint operations against terrorism, separatism and extremism, which are the main pillars of the RATS mandate.

But analysts say the military significance of the exercise is limited. The exercise is small-scale, with low participation, and it is unlikely to translate into a significant operational capability.

Politically, Iran hopes to use the SCO to project an alignment with major Eurasian powers and dispel the perception that it is isolated, even if the organization remains fragmented and uncertain about its strategic role. Whether this will succeed is another matter.

"A counter-terrorism exercise is not an indication that Iran's relations with countries like Russia and China are improving," Farzin Nadimi, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Farda. He stressed that the exercise is more symbolic than transformative in nature.

Nadim argued that it is unlikely that SCO members will have a strong presence in these exercises.

"It's likely they're just there to observe as the [Revolutionary Guard] Mechanized Brigade will do the heavy lifting," he said, noting the lack of reporting on member states transporting military equipment to Iran.

The speaker of the Iranian Parliament and former commander of the Iranian Guards' air force, Mohammmad Baqer Qalibaf, presented the exercise as a geopolitical message to Western capitals.

"Independent states are determined to defend themselves against an unjust global order," he said during a speech on December 2.

But Nadim said Tehran is overestimating the strategic importance of the exercise.

"This is probably a message to... Azerbaijan and Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as to Kurdish groups based in Iraq," he said. "I don't think an exercise at this level and of this quality could have any other purpose, such as serving as a deterrent against Israel."

The northwestern part of Iran remains one of the country's most sensitive security areas and has long been a site of separatist sentiment among ethnic Azeris and Kurds. The region has seen activity by Kurdish groups that Tehran considers terrorist organizations and serves as a corridor for smuggling gangs operating along the borders with Armenia, but also with Azerbaijan and its enclave of Navchivan.

Tehran's membership in the SCO — which was formalized in 2023 after nearly two decades as an observer — gives Iran access to extensive intelligence sharing and the ability to formally request the designation of terrorist organizations through the RATS. Domestically, officials have said that SCO membership marks a diplomatic break from Western isolation.

But the organization itself is having difficulty defining its purpose.

Analysts argue that the SCO is facing an identity crisis: its mission has blurred over time, mixing counterterrorism cooperation with trade, cultural programs and broad geopolitical messages against Western influence.

Internal divisions further complicate the situation. Russia increasingly sees the SCO as an anti-Western bloc that is strengthening its influence in Central Asia, while China prioritizes coordination against terrorism and advancing its global vision of governance. Geographical expansion – with the admission of India and Pakistan in 2017, Iran in 2023 and Belarus in 2024 – has increased the group’s reach, but has also deepened internal contradictions. /REL