is the country’s highway to greatness and the sure way to kill Western sanctions.
The government propaganda mills have been working overtime. The constant message delivered to the Iranian public is that the agreement of the 120 member states of the NAM to meet in Tehran proves that Iran is important in the world, that it is respected by the countries outside the West, and that the presence of so many foreign delegations in Tehran shows that they all disapprove of sanctions.
In fact, much of the propaganda leaves the impression with the Iranian public that the 120 NAM members—62 percent of the world’s nations—just recently choose Iran as the summit site and did so specifically to make their opposition to sanctions clear.
Actually, the 120 members did not all have a say. Iran was chosen to become the chair of the NAM three years ago when Cuba was finishing up its three-year term as chair. It appears that the choice of Iran was made by Fidel Castro.
But Tehran is portraying the summit differently. For example, Mohsen Rezai, secretary of the Expediency Council, said Monday, “The NAM summit enjoys the capacity to undermine sanctions, create joint markets, insurance mechanisms and banks, and to strengthen public diplomacy.” That’s a big order—and far beyond anything NAM has ever done.
Much commentary went even further. Majlis Deputy Dakhil Abbas-Zarehzadeh even went so far as to claim that the presence of so many countries in Tehran would have the effect of isolating the United States. However, most comment on that issue confined itself to asserting that the presence of the NAM in Tehran meant that US efforts to isolate the Islamic Republic had been foiled.
The weeklong event is actually three linked events of two days each. First, there was a working-level session largely attended by deputy foreign ministers or ambassadors Sunday and Monday. Then, foreign ministers gathered Tuesday and Wednesday to work on a draft of what is to be the NAM’s policy communique. Finally, the actual summit of kings and presidents and prime ministers was scheduled for Thursday and Friday after the Iran Times went to press.
Iran said it had a plan for Syria that it would unveil for the NAM to endorse. But officials said on Tuesday that the foreign ministers’ session had endorsed a very bland statement in which they simply opposed foreign intervention, something even Washington—which has shown no interest in getting entangled in Syria—would be happy to see. Nothing was said Tuesday about any Iranian “plan” for Syria.
The NAM is not a positive forum for Iran with regard to Syria. A breakdown of the UN General Assembly vote August 3 that condemned Syria for using force against its own people shows that 70 of the 120 NAM members voted for that resolution and only eight voted with Iran, Syria, China and Russia in opposition.
It was not clear at press time what kings and presidents and prime ministers would actually attend. Iran had not released a list. But Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said Sunday that two kings, 27 presidents and eight prime ministers would attend, a total of 37 chiefs of state and government.
That shows attendance by top leaders is down by almost half from previous NAM summist. The Chinese Xinhua news agency said that 64 heads of state (kings and presidents) and heads of government (prime ministers) attended the 1992 NAM summit and that 63 attended in 2003.
While attendance by the big fish is way down this year by Iran’s figures, it isn’t clear if that reflects an unwillingness to be seen hob-nobbing with officials of the Islamic Republic or if it just reflects the decline of the NAM.
Mehman-Parast said other delegations would be led by nine vice presidents, six special envoys and 23 to 25 foreign ministers. That meant that 43 to 45 delegations or more than a third would be headed by lesser officials. That clearly shows how little many member states think of the NAM.
The NAM was created in 1961 as a rejection of the Western and Soviet blocs and their efforts to draft countries into their blocs. The NAM was an effort to make neutrals or non-aligned countries into an effective bloc of their own. But nothing much came of it. The 120 countries were too diverse; Uruguay had little in common with Nepal.
Its insignificant status is perhaps best symbolized by the fact that it has no website. It also has no permanent secretariat. Whoever has been chairman has simply run the NAM business out of its own Foreign Ministry. The Islamic Republic this week said it wanted to change that and create a permanent secretariat. It remains to be seen if other members choose to pay for that or if the secretariat becomes just a wholly owned subsidiary of Iran’s Foreign Ministry.
The meeting started off with the Islamic Republic treating the NAM itself as a wholly owned subsidiary. Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi addressed the working level session Sunday and listed eight priorities for the summit. His speech might just as well have been a statement of the priorities of the Islamic Republic.
First, “attempts to impose values on other members of the international community should be thwarted.”
Second, the UN is “in dire need of reform” with powers taken away from the Security Council and given to the General Assembly.
Third, foreign intervention must be confronted as it will “hinder the genuine and inborn democratic processes in concerned countries and the inalienable right to self-determination.”
Fourth, Palestine.
Fifth, “The root causes of terrorism are mainly bi-products [sic] of wrongdoings of the Western colonial and superpowersÖ. It is high time to take effective steps to put an end to all aspects and forms of terrorism, including state terrorism that is insincerely promoted and supported by some Western powers.”
Sixth, Salehi called for the total elimination of nuclear weapons by 2015. He cited “the Israeli regime” as “the major impediment” to that goal. He did not mention India, Pakistan and North Korea, which are nuclear powers and NAM member states. But he did say, “Iran does not seek … anything beyond its inalienable legitimate rights. What we are looking for is justice and the refusal of any resort to double standard approach in the IAEA and other relevant UN organs.”
Seventh, “NAM has to deal with extraterritorial imposition of internal laws and coercive financial and economic measures, including unilateral economic sanctions.”
Eighth, human rights “should not become subject to selectivity, politicization and application of double standards.”
The Islamic Republic took over the chairmanship of NAM from Egypt Sunday and is expected to use its three-year term to speak in world forums on such issues as Salehi outlined. It is normal for the chair of NAM to speak on behalf of all the members. It remains to be seen if the Islamic Republic will go too far in pursuing its own agenda and offend some members. For example, the vast bulk of the NAM members who have voted in the IAEA or UN Security Council have supported sanctions on Iran.