Summit amidst looming war and economic crisis

PanARMENIAN.Net - In this regard, the NAM summit may prove useful for Iran and Syria. Tehran repeatedly voiced its readiness to mediate between Assad and the opposition. This willingness, however, has been torpedoed by not only U.S., but the oil monarchies of the Persian Gulf as well. These monarchies are the major players in Syrian events, openly funding the opposition and providing them with weapons and instructors. Turkey plays the same game, longing to see defeat of Assad and Iran so that to dominate in the region.Speaking at the summit opening, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi said that Tehran would present a "rational and acceptable" proposal on the Syrian crisis at the event.

Iran’s nuclear program is another issue expected to be high on the agenda. While Israel regularly – at least once a month – speaks of bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities, the latter keeps building up its military might. Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said on August 22 that if attacked by foreign troops, Iran will resolutely protect its sovereignty and integrity of its territory. In addition, Iran’s air forces already got $24,5 mln for construction of an air defense base in the south, largest in the country.

Also, there is a third major circumstance. Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi arrives in Tehran. He will be the first Egyptian leader to visit Iran over the past 33 years. In 1979, the Islamic revolution overthrew the regime of Shah Reza Pahlavi, and Egypt sealed a peace treaty with Israel providing political asylum to Pahlavi. Since then, the diplomatic relations between Iran and Egypt were severed, up until now. It is worth noting that Iran has been recently voicing readiness to restore diplomatic ties with Egypt, but Hosni Mubarak gave no response to this. Following Mursi’s election, the governments of both Egypt and Iran stated their intention to re-establish the diplomatic relations. According to observers, the new Egyptian leader hopes to strengthen political status of his country through contacts with Iran. In view of Egypt’s key status in the Arab world and Iran’s position in the region, the warming ties between the two states will indeed influence the general geopolitical situation in West Asia and North Africa.

Establishment of the Non-Aligned Movement aimed, among others, to organize a meeting of Asian and African states, which took place in 1955 in Bandung, Indonesia and triggered creation of the movement. The 29 countries that participated at the Bandung conference represented a total population of 1.5 billion people. The then prime minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru chaired the gathering.

Unlike the Western and Eastern blocs, this union of the movement member-states bases not on military, political or economic interests but rather on opposition to the influence of major powers jeopardizing their political independence, as well as efforts to eliminate political and economic colonialism and support to freedom and anti-imperialism movements.

Two fronts emerged at Bandung conference; one followed India and Indonesia to oppose the imperialism, while the second one comprising Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Iraq adhered to anti-Communism stance. Finally, Nehru’s efforts joined the two groups into one anti-imperialism front.

So the Bandung conference led to the establishment of the Non-Aligned Movement; in 1961, in Belgrade it was recognized as the largest organization of representatives of the so called “third world”.

This was largely the brainchild of Yugoslavia's president Josip Broz Tito, India's prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Egypt's president Gamal Abdel Nasser and Indonesia's leader Ahmed Sukarno.

Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak opened the recent summit in Sharm el-Sheikh in 2009. During the next three years, Cairo chaired in the organization; however, following the revolution and Mubarak’s deposition, the country totally focused on its domestic political problems over the past 1.5 years. The new Egyptian leader Mohamed Morsi is expected to arrive in Tehran on August 30. President of Syria Bashar Assad is also invited to attend the meeting.

The NAM host country and particularly its foreign ministry undertake to promote and implement its goals during the next three years. Also, in view of regular meetings of the representatives of its member-states at annual sessions of the UN General Assembly, permanent representative of the country will act as minister for affairs of non-member states.

In fact, the Non-Aligned Movement is the biggest international organization after the United Nations, able to undertake major moves. Membership of 120 states, i.e. 60% of UN countries in this movement doubles the weight of its decisions, particularly with regard to global peace.