Historic Tehran NAM Summit
By Stephen Lendman, Contributor
theintelhub.com
August 27, 2012
After the UN, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is the most important world body. Hopefully its 16th summit will infuse it with new life.
As host, Iran has a historic opportunity. At the same time, it can enhance its own prestige and enlist support against hostile Washington/Israeli designs.
August 26 began six days of sessions and discussions. Proceedings began with an experts meeting.
During the opening session, Egypt’s permanent UN representative, Mootaz Ahmadein Khalil, ceremonially passed NAM’s presidential baton to Iran. For the next three years, Tehran will head the organization.
Hosting NAM is significant. Assuming leadership affords added prestige. Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mihmanparast said 118 foreign delegations will attend. Russia and China are there as observer nations. So is Australia.
Participants sent 27 presidents, eight prime ministers, nine vice presidents, six special envoys, up to 25 foreign ministers, other high-level ministers, and two kings.
The Tehran Times named some of the participating dignitaries. They include:
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Bolivian President Evo Morales, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, North Korea’s parliamentary chairman Kim Yong-nam, Cuba’s Raul Castro, Kuwaiti Emir Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Qatari Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Tajik President Emomali Rahmonov, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, Armenian President Serzh Sarkisyan, Lebanese President Michel Sulaiman, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.
Despite tensions between the two countries, Saudi Arabia’s Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz (King Abdullah’s son) will attend. He’s currently acting deputy foreign minister.
Bahrain’s foreign minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa will also participate. In March 2011, Manama recalled its ambassador in protest over Tehran’s condemnation of Bahraini police state violence. Iran responded in kind by recalling its envoy.
On August 12, Bahrain returned it ambassador to Tehran. Days later, Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein amir-Abdollahian said Iran wouldn’t return its ambassador to Manama as long as crackdowns continued.
In advance of the summit, a document with 688 articles was prepared. They’ll be discussed during the two-day meeting of experts. Topics include international issues, regional crises, human rights, food and health security, as well as matters relating to economic development.
One statement will focus on Palestine. Another will be a comprehensive plan to end Washington’s war on Syria. A contact group will be established to help defuse the conflict. One-on-one and multilateral discussions will be held on how to do it.
Iran has multiple objectives in mind. It seeks support for its lawful nuclear program, peace, and mutually beneficial solidarity.
Economic issues will be stressed. Plans will be presented to revitalize NAM. Participating delegations will be urged to transform it into a more significant organization by making its “approvals” binding. Since founded in 1961, it’s only issued statements relating to world problems.
On August 26, Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi delivered the opening speech. Press TV said he “called on all member states of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to use their utmost potential and make collective efforts to establish peace and justice in the world.”
“At the current juncture, we have made our utmost efforts to promote general objectives of the Non-Aligned Movement including fostering solidarity among all member states, which is a prerequisite for an efficient movement.”
He said a “destructive mind” affects international relations. He urged solidarity and respect for national sovereignty in the face of a collective threat.
“We need to revive our movement in accordance with the current conditions in the world,” he urged. NAM participants “must seriously oppose unilateral economic sanctions which have been enacted by certain countries against non-aligned members.”
During its leadership period, he said Iran will try to strengthen NAM and increase its importance.
He added that world views top NAM officials share, show a clear mutual “determination to support and strengthen the movement and turn it into an effective tool to protect the interests of member states.”
He hopes mutual concerns will translate into effective peace offensive plans.
On August 26, the Tehran Times said Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei will deliver the opening speech of the summit of heads of state and government.
It said the summit “will mark a turning point in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran at a time when certain Western countries and the Zionist regime are making efforts to isolate Iran in the international arena.”
Mehr News said NAM participants are invited to visit Iran’s nuclear facilities. At issue is showing them they’re peaceful and non-threatening. Scheduled trips are also scheduled to industrial and scientific sites.
Mehr News also said Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will attend. Reports disagree on whether Palestine’s elected Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh will participate.
Maan News said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad invited him. On August 26, it said he accepted the invitation and will attend.
Unelected Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad objected, saying:
“This is a serious escalation by Iran against Palestinian unity and against the Palestinian Authority’s role as the guardian of the Palestinian people both in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank including Jerusalem.”
The PLO Executive Committee also issued a statement. It accused Iran of promoting Palestinian disunity.
Hamas is Palestine’s elected government. Abbas’ presidential term expired in January 2009. He and appointed prime minister Fayyad have no legitimacy.
Confirming Haniyeh’s attendance, Gaza spokesman Taher Al-Nunu called on all parties to respect the Palestinian people’s democratic choice. He added that Haniyeh will participate in Tehran as elected prime minister.
On August 26, a second Maan News report said Iran’s foreign minister told his PA counterpart that Haniyeh wasn’t invited.
PA foreign minister Riyad Al-Maliki said Abbas won’t attend with him and other Gaza delegates. Palestine remains a divisive issue. At the time of this writing, no further information is available.
Dominant discussion themes include solidarity, national sovereignty inviolability, economic development, and peace. The summit represents a major opportunity for Iran to enlist support. It also provides a platform against Western/Israeli imperialism.
Top officials from 118 delegations shows Washington’s attempt to isolate Iran failed. World participation is impressive.
Fidel Castro’s 1979 Havana Declaration will be stressed. He said NAM’s purpose is to ensure “the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of non-aligned countries (in their) struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neocolonialism, racism, and all forms of foreign aggression, occupation, domination, interference or hegemony as well as as against great power and bloc politics.”
Six days of discussions will focus on these and related themes. Hopefully at summit’s end Iran will have gained prestige at the expense of Washington, Israel, and key NATO allies. Perhaps unity on how to end Syria’s conflict will also emerge.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said NAM participants oppose foreign interference. A “new proposal will be presented at the sidelines….and evaluated by members.”
He added that NAM participants “want to hear the standpoints of the Syrian people and see a comprehensive plan to settle the crisis.”
“No foreign states but the people of Syria should decide about their political future.”
Achieving broad agreement on that principle alone would make Tehran’s summit successful. Translating agreement into policy matters most.
A Final Comment
Western media attempts to ignore, downplay, or demean the NAM summit may backfire. The event’s significance may be enhanced. A Washington Post editorial called it an anti-American “festival of resistance,” a “useless recreational club,” and a “bacchanal of nonsense.”
These type comments reflect imperial arrogance, the shameful state of America’s media, and why US policies and its supporters are condemned.
Iran’s UN mission press office head Alireza Miryousefi responded, saying:
The Post editorial “unjustifiably smeared Iran and mocked the upcoming” NAM summit shamelessly. Doing so “ignore(s) the growing importance of the movement…” Most UN member states belong. Other key ones are observers.
“In light of its focus on multilateral cooperation, disarmament, sustainable world peace, rights of nations and horizontal relations defying hegemonic structures, the Non-Aligned Movement is a major cross-regional group in the United Nations….”
Participation by dozens of world leaders “promises to make significant contributions to (NAM’s) lofty objectives.”
Iran’s agenda is peace and mutual cooperation, he stressed. Its legitimate nuclear program threatens no one. NAM principles “always supported Iran’s inalienable nuclear (and other) rights and opposed” illegal Western/Israeli threats.
Washington has other ideas. So does Israel. Hopefully this year’s summit will show solidarity against them. What’s more important than world peace.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book is titled How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/
HANDS OFF SYRIA! HANDS OFF IRAN! — Weekly Pickets in Halifax, Canada
[Potent News editor’s update – 19/08/2013: Sadly, I am no longer advertising this event because the organizers cannot assure me that a “demilitarize.ca” sign will not be present at the picket. This is not a minor issue. When I lived in Halifax and participated in these pickets this didn’t happen. Demilitarize.ca is pushing Agenda 21 – enough said. I’m sick of participating in protests which hack at the branches and don’t ever get to the root core of the problem. My family’s suffering in Syria will not be aided by a watered down and diluted solution that ignores that the same people perpetrating this unrest in Syria are ultimately aligned with the same people pushing Agenda 21. If the organizer(s) change their minds and are able to simply focus on Syria/Iran and not dilute their message by advertising Agenda 21 (something that is fundamentally diametrically opposed to freedom everywhere) then maybe I will advertise this again. It’s not like I was able to have a “PotentNews.com” sign at the picket when I was present. I would have loved to teach people about chemtrails too during the pickets, but I didn’t do that except for individually among people I met who seemed receptive because I felt that stopping war was something everyone could rally behind. I had already consciously overlooked the fact they they were communists, because I felt that the communist message has been around long enough and people would have fully fallen for it by now if it was that much of a threat. I, however, view the green agenda to be a more significant threat so I will not advertise this toxic information/protest anymore. That said, I can’t say I’m surprised by these events and with each passing day I start to see that the relationship had to be torn down in this way so that it could be perhaps one day rebuild it on a more solid foundation. As I said, we’re currently hacking at the branches if we ignore the Agenda 21 infection of this movement. Chemtrails are a form of warfare against us. Even though my family in Syria has had their lives turned upside down, chemtrails are a slow kill weapon here in Canada. It is biological warfare. And I don’t see the purpose in looking at one “war” and pretending we’re not ALREADY being attacked right now as we speak. This is global depopulation. I voiced these concerns to the Halifax picket organizer initially a year ago but sadly he was not enthusiastic to do any digging into the geoengineering issue. I put up with that because I was depressed about war on Syria and the picket was (most of the time) consisting of only ME and the organizer, Allan – only 2 people in the whole city. I felt obligated to work with him because I didn’t see anyone else in all of Halifax who was awake about the Syria issue. Allan, if there was a miscommunication between us and I’m missing something, please email me.]
Potent News
August 31, 2012
[Potent News Editor’s note: The weekly pickets have been organized partly by communists and while I do not condone communism at all, I do have relatives in Syria and I do not want NATO to drop bombs on them. I urge anyone in Halifax who opposes war to join us every Friday at the address noted below (if the weather permits) so that we can raise awareness about the world war that is quickly unfolding. There are many reasons why Canada should not be involved and many reason why Canada should exit NATO.]
HANDS OFF SYRIA! HANDS OFF IRAN!
Weekly Picket:
Oppose imperialist intervention in Syria and Iran!
4 – 5pm, every Friday (weather permitting)
Corner of Spring Garden Road & Barrington Street
‘US becoming increasingly isolated’ [video]
Russia Today
August 29, 2012
The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has arrived in Tehran to take part in the Summit of the Non-Aligned movement… that’s a bloc of countries that don’t consider themselves in union with the U.S.
Washington has voiced criticism of the UN chief’s visit to Iran and of the gathering in general.
Despite Iran’s willingness and ability to help find a solution to the Syria crisis, any ideas put forward by Tehran could be met with resistance, says author and journalist Afshin Rattansi.
Ry and Pepe Escobar talk Syria [audio]
Rys2sense
August 29, 2012
boy I cut the beginning when we were really shooting the shite but the whole thing in one part will be up on Vimeo RyLiberty same as my twitter RyLiberty
Zionists seek to break up Middel East countries: Kevin Barrette [video]
Press TV
August 28, 2012
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has strongly opposed any form of foreign military intervention in Syria, stressing that his country seeks a peaceful solution to the unrest in the Arab country.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011. Damascus says outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorists are behind the unrest while the opposition accuses the security forces of killing protesters.
The Syrian government says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and that there are reports that a very large number of the armed militants are foreign nationals.
“The time has come for everyone to realize that war do[es] not achieve stability, because peace is based on justice and comprehensive peace for everyone, without any side attacking the other,” the 61-year-old Egyptian leader said.
“We will never be a party to an attack on any side and we will never accept anyone threatening our security or the security of the region for one reason or another,” he added.
In a recent statement, Morsi said he plans to form a regional contact group including Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, to find a way to end the violence in Syria and meet people’s demands.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Dr. Kevin Barrett, the author and Islamic studies expert in Montana to further discuss the issue.
Watch this video on our website: http://www.presstv.com/detail/2012/08/28/258654/zionists-seek-to-break-up-me-…
The Endless War: Saudi Arabia Goes On The Offensive Against Iran
NWOTruth
August 27, 2012
Submitted by Felix Imonti of OilPrice.com,
Saudi Arabia has gone on the offensive against Iran to protect its interests. Their involvement in Syria is the first battle in what is going to be a long bloody conflict that will know no frontiers or limits.
Ongoing Disorders in the island kingdom of Bahrain since February of 2011 have set off alarm bells in Riyadh. The Saudis are convinced that Iran is directing the protests and fear that the problems will spill over the twenty-five kilometer long COSWAY into oil rich Al-Qatif, where The bulk of the two million Shia in the kingdom are concentrated. So far, the Saudis have not had to deal with demonstrations a serious as those in Bahrain, but success in the island kingdom could encourage the protestors to become more violent.
Protecting the oil is the first concern of the government. Oil is the sole source of the national wealth and it is managed by the state owned Saudi Aramco Corporation. The monopoly of political power by the members of the Saud family means that all of the wealth of the kingdom is their personal property. Saudi Arabia is a company country with the twenty-eight million citizens the responsibility of the Saud Family rulers.
The customary manner of dealing with a problem by the patriarchal regime is to bury it in money. King Abdullah announced at the height of the Arab Spring that he was increasing the national budget by 130 billion dollars to be spent over the coming five years. Government salaries and the minimum wage were raised. New housing and other benefits are to be provided. At the same time, he plans to expand the security forces by sixty thousand men.
While the Saudi king seeks to sooth the unrest among the general population by adding more government benefits, he will not grant any concessions to the eight percent of the population that is Shia. He takes seriously the warning by King Abdullah of Jordan back in 2004 of the danger of a Shia Crescent that would extend from the coast of Lebanon to Afghanistan. Hezbollah in Lebanon, Assad in Syria, and the Shia controlled government of Iraq form the links in the chain.
When the Arab Spring reached Syria, the leaders in Riyadh were given the weapon to break the chain. Appeals from tribal leaders under attack in Syria to kinsmen in the Gulf States for assistance could not be ignored. The various blinks between the Gulf States in several Syrian tribes means that Saudi Arabia and its close ally Qatar have connections that include at least three million people out of the Syrian populations of twenty-three million. To show how deep the bonds go, the leader of the Nijris Tribe in Syria is married to a woman from the Saud Family.
It is no wonder that Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said in February that arming the Syrian rebels was an “excellent idea.” He was supported by Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani who said, “We should do whatever necessary to help [the Syrian opposition], including giving them weapons to defend themselves.” The intervention has the nature of a family and tribal issue that the prominent Saudi cleric Aidh al-Qarni has turned into a Sunni-Shia War by promoting Assad’s death.
The Saudis and their Qatar and United Arab Emirate allies have pledged one hundred million dollars to pay wages to the fighters. Many of the officers of the Free Syrian Army are from tribes connected to the Gulf. In effect, the payment of wages is paying members of associated tribes.
Here, the United States is not a welcomed partner, except as a supplier of arms. Saudi Arabia sees the role of the United States limited to being a wall of steel to protect the oil wealth of the Kingdom and the Gulf States from Iranian aggression. In February of 1945, President Roosevelt at a meeting in Egypt with Abdel Aziz bin Saud, the founder of modern Saudi Arabia, pledged to defend the kingdom in exchange for a steady flow of oil.
Since those long ago days when the U.S. was establishing Pax Americana, the Saudis have lost their trust in the wisdom or the reliability of American policy makers. The Saudis urged the U.S. not to invade Iraq in 2003 only to have them ignore Saudi interests in maintaining an Iraqi buffer zone against Iran. The Saudis had asked the U.S. not to leave a Shia dominated government in Baghdad that would threaten the Northern frontier of the Kingdom, only to have the last American soldiers depart in December 2011. With revolution sweeping across the Middle East, Washington abandoned President Mubarak of Egypt, Saudi Arabia’s favorite non royal leader in the region.
Worried by the possibility of Iranian sponsored insurrections among Shia in the Gulf States, the Saudis are asserting their power in the region while they have the advantage. For thirty years, they have been engaged in a proxy war with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Syria is to be the next battlefield, but here, there is a critical difference from what were minor skirmishes in Lebanon, Yemen, and elsewhere. The Saudis with the aid of Qatar, and the UAE is striking at the core interests of Tehran; and they have through their tribal networks the advantage over an isolated Islamic Republic.
Tribal and kinship relations are being augmented by the infusion of the Salafi vision of Islam that is growing in the Gulf States. Money from the Gulf States has gone into the development of religious centers to spread the fundamentalist belief. A critical part of the ideology is to be anti-Shia.
Salafism in Saudi Arabia is promulgated by the Wahhabi School of Islam. The Wahhabi movement began in the eighteenth century and promoted a return to the fundamentalism of the early followers of the Faith.
The Sauds incorporated the religious movement into their leadership of the tribes. When the modern state of Saudi Arabia was formed, they were granted control of the educational system and much else in the society in exchange for the endorsement of the authoritarian rule.
When the Kingdom used its growing wealth in the 1970s to extend its interests far from the traditional territory in the battle against the atheistic Soviet Union, the Wahhabi clergy became missionaries in advancing their ideology through religious institutions to oppose the Soviets. More than two hundred thousand jihadists were sent into Afghanistan to fight the Soviet forces and succeeded in driving them out.
There is no longer a Soviet Union to confront. Today, the enemy is the Islamic Republic of Iran with what is described by the Wahhabis as a heretical form of Islam and its involvement in the Shia communities across the region. For thirteen centuries, the Shia have been kept under control. With the hand of Iran in the form of the Qud Force reaching into restless communities that number as many as one hundred and six million people in what is the heart of the Middle East, the Saudis see a desperate need to crush the foe before it has the means to pull down the privileged position of the Saud Family and the families of the other Gulf State rulers.
The war begins in Syria where we can expect that a successor government to Assad will be declared soon in the Saudi controlled tribal areas even before Assad is defeated. The territory is likely to adopt the more fundamentalist principals of the Salafists as it serves as a stepping stone to Iran Itself. It promises to be a bloody protracted war that will recognize no frontier and will know no limits by all of the participants.
[VIA zerohedge.com/fullrss2.xml]
‘Egyptian leader heads to China, Iran to find non-Western cash flow’
Russia Today
August 28, 2012
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is set to kick off his first visit to China, shortly followed by a historic trip to Tehran. Middle East history professor Lawrence Davidson believes Cairo wants to diversify its economic relations.
The Egyptian President, who took office in June, will hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao on Tuesday. His visit is expected to largely focus on economic cooperation, which is why Morsi is accompanied by a number of Egyptian businessmen.
On Thursday, the Egyptian president will visit Iran to attend the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, which Tehran is hosting. The trip, which is expected to last for only a few hours, will nevertheless be a historic occasion, as diplomatic relations between the two countries largely deteriorated following the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran. This will be the first visit by an Egyptian head of state since that date.
RT: President Morsi and his Chinese counterpart are expected to hold talks on boosting bilateral relations and attracting more investment. How will this impact Cairo’s geopolitical interests with the country still dependent on Washington’s aid?
Lawrence Davidson: I think what the Egyptians are trying to do is diversify their source of assistance, particularly economic assistance and so if they can find financial and other sources of resources outside the United States or the World Bank, then they’re going to do it. So that causes a sort of leaning not only towards China, but also maybe Russia and Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. So Morsi is catering to that area because of financial need. And we saw that just recently with Egypt’s refusal to let a Bahraini activist into the country. So I think that Egyptian policies and actions are going to essentially align to their economic needs.
RT: President Morsi then heads to Iran, which is seen as an unprecedented move, given the tensions over Tehran’s controversial nuclear program. Is it possible that his visit will bolster Iran’s standing?
LD: I think so, particularly in the Arab world. If the Egyptians and Iranians are seen to put forth common interests, common goals and boost trade or something like that, I think that that’s going to bode very well for the Iranians. Ironically, the Saudis are probably not going to like that. But I have a feeling that Morsi will then go and say nice things to the Saudis to keep the money flowing from the Gulf.
RT: The Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi’s former party, has called this upcoming visit to Tehran a demonstration of Egypt’s newly elected leader’s independence from the US. What kind of message does this trip convey to Washington?
LD: I don’t think it’s going to upset the Americans that much. Actually, I think the American government really doesn’t want to jack up the tension in Iran and that region. They really want to calm things. And so they’re not going to get upset about these sorts of maneuvers. The real tensions that are pushing the Americans towards conflict with Iran are centered domestically. And so, to the extent that Obama feels that he’s got a real good shot at re-election, I think we are going to see a more independent kind of behavior on the part of the US government vis-à-vis Iran.
PN 