Vladimir Putin says 80 large Russian companies to visit Iran next week

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that a delegation of 80 large companies would visit Iran next week, Russian state-owned news agency RIA reported on Thursday.

Mr Putin and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi were attending a summit of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation in Samarkand in Uzbekistan.

"On the bilateral level, co-operation is developing positively," Mr Putin said.

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Earlier on Thursday, Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said Iran had signed a deal for full membership of the SCO.

"We are doing everything to make Iran a full member of the SCO," Mr Putin said.

The group brings together China, Russia, India, Pakistan and four ex-Soviet Central Asian countries.

"By signing the document for full membership of the SCO, now Iran has entered a new stage of various economic, commercial, transit and energy cooperation," Mr Amirabdollahian wrote on his Instagram page.

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. AFP

The body was formed in the 2001 as a platform for dialogue between Russia, China and ex-Soviet states in Central Asia. It expanded four years ago to include India and Pakistan, with a view to playing a bigger role in countering Western influence in the region.

Iran will now be able to take part in meetings of the bloc. However, it is likely to take some time to achieve full membership, deputy secretary general of the organisation, Grigory Logvinov, told Russian state TV.

Iran's economy has been hit hard since 2018 when the US president at the time, Donald Trump, abandoned Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers, including Russia and China.

Iran, one of four SCO observer states, applied for full membership in 2008. However, its bid was slowed down by UN and US sanctions imposed over its nuclear programme.

Several SCO members did not want a country under international sanctions in their ranks, which now also applies to Russia.

Mr Putin also met Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on the sidelines of the summit.

He said pipeline gas supplies to Pakistan were possible and that part of the necessary infrastructure was already in place, RIA reported.

Who has been sanctioned?

Daniella Weiss and Nachala
Described as 'the grandmother of the settler movement', she has encouraged the expansion of settlements for decades. The 79 year old leads radical settler movement Nachala, whose aim is for Israel to annex Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where it helps settlers built outposts.

Harel Libi & Libi Construction and Infrastructure
Libi has been involved in threatening and perpetuating acts of aggression and violence against Palestinians. His firm has provided logistical and financial support for the establishment of illegal outposts.

Zohar Sabah
Runs a settler outpost named Zohar’s Farm and has previously faced charges of violence against Palestinians. He was indicted by Israel’s State Attorney’s Office in September for allegedly participating in a violent attack against Palestinians and activists in the West Bank village of Muarrajat.

Coco’s Farm and Neria’s Farm
These are illegal outposts in the West Bank, which are at the vanguard of the settler movement. According to the UK, they are associated with people who have been involved in enabling, inciting, promoting or providing support for activities that amount to “serious abuse”.

Your rights as an employee

The government has taken an increasingly tough line against companies that fail to pay employees on time. Three years ago, the Cabinet passed a decree allowing the government to halt the granting of work permits to companies with wage backlogs.

The new measures passed by the Cabinet in 2016 were an update to the Wage Protection System, which is in place to track whether a company pays its employees on time or not.

If wages are 10 days late, the new measures kick in and the company is alerted it is in breach of labour rules. If wages remain unpaid for a total of 16 days, the authorities can cancel work permits, effectively shutting off operations. Fines of up to Dh5,000 per unpaid employee follow after 60 days.

Despite those measures, late payments remain an issue, particularly in the construction sector. Smaller contractors, such as electrical, plumbing and fit-out businesses, often blame the bigger companies that hire them for wages being late.

The authorities have urged employees to report their companies at the labour ministry or Tawafuq service centres — there are 15 in Abu Dhabi.