September 3, 2012

After staying virtually dormant for years, the 51 year-old Non-Aligned Movement of 120 countries took center stage in Tehran last week to confront the most difficult questions in the Middle East and temporarily put on hold Iran’s prolonged diplomatic isolation.

In hosting the 16th NAM summit conference, amid the deteriorating Syrian crisis and the unresolved controversy over its own suspected nuclear weapons program, Iran succeeded in scaling the isolationist wall which the UN Security Council, the European Union, the United States, Australia, Canada, India, Israel, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland have sought to build, through sanctions, around the Islamic Republic since its revolution in 1979.

It was the first international conference hosted by Iran in 33 years, and it was no mean feat for it to have been able to bring in UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, the president of the 66th session of the UN General Assembly, 29 heads of state, seven heads of government, nine vice-presidents, several special envoys, and so many foreign ministers from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe to the two-day summit.

But Iran had to pay a price for it, not the least from some participants and from Western observers, who did not allow the slightest glitch to go unnoticed.

The Supreme Leader of the Iranian revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei opened the conference with a blistering attack on the United States as a “bullying and hegemonic” power, and Israel as a regime of “ Zionist wolves.” This was further reinforced by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who chaired the conference.

Ban Ki-Moon tried to balance the rhetoric by urging all the parties to stop provocative and inflammatory threats. “A war of words can quickly spiral into a war of violence. Bluster can so easily become bloodshed. Now is the time for all the leaders to use their voices to lower, not raise, tensions,” he said

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, who handed over the NAM chairmanship from Egypt to Iran, embarrassed his host, if not the conference itself, and prompted a walkout by the Syrian delegation when he expressed strong support for the rebels trying to oust the Assad government in Damascus.

Iran and many other countries, including Russia and China, would like to see the Syrian people resolve their own problems themselves, without any intervention from any external parties. They are against Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey or any other foreign government arming the Syrian rebels.

NAM itself is founded on the five principles of mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, mutual non-aggression, mutual non-interference in domestic affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence.

At the same time, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released a curiously timed report saying Iran had increased the number of centrifuges capable of making weapons-grade material in an underground bunker at its Fordo underground facility, and that it had effectively covered from spy satellite view and cleaned up the Parchin military complex, making it impossible for IAEA inspectors to correctly determine whether explosive tests for warheads had taken place.

The Western press was quick to pronounce Ban Ki-moon’s and Morsi’s statements as well as the IAEA report as unscripted “stumbles” of the summit, without regard to the final outcome of the conference. In truth, those “stumbles” had no effect on the outcome document, which was prepared by the foreign ministers and formally adopted by the chief delegates.

The document released at the end of the summit reiterated NAM’s adherence to its original five principles; condemned the increasing tendency of certain states to resort to unilateralism and to unilaterally imposed measures, and the non-fulfillment of commitments and obligations assumed under relevant international legally binding instruments, especially on weapons of mass destruction, and conventional weapons; called for total nuclear disarmament but supported the right of states to the peaceful use of nuclear energy; and supported the creation of a Palestinian state.

Much of its contents reflected points made in Khamenei’s keynote address, without the rhetorical flourish. The keynote laid out Iran’s position vis-à-vis the United States, the Western powers and the United Nations Security Council, as well as on nuclear weapons and nuclear energy, and on the issue of Palestine. Next to the outcome document, it was, in the view of many participants, the single most important document of the summit.

Alleging U.S. control of the UN Security Council, Khamenei said:

“The UN Security Council has an illogical, unjust and completely undemocratic structure and mechanism. This is a flagrant form of dictatorship, which is antiquated and obsolete and whose expiry date has passed. It is through abusing this improper mechanism that America and its accomplices have managed to disguise their bullying as noble concepts and impose it on the world. They protect the interests of the West in the name of ‘human rights’. They interfere militarily in other countries in the name of ‘democracy.’ They target defenseless people in villages and cities with their bombs and weapons in the name of ‘combating terrorism’.

“From their perspective, humanity is divided into first-, second-, and third-class citizens. Human life is considered cheap in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and expensive in America and Western Europe. The security of America and Europe is considered important, while the security of the rest of humanity is considered unimportant. Torture and assassination are permissible and completely ignored if they are carried out by America, the Zionists and other puppets. It does not trouble their consciences that they have secret prisons in various places on different continents, in which defenseless prisoners who have no legal representation and have not been tried in a court of law are treated in the most hideous and detestable way.”

Still on the US:

“In today’s world, security is a shared need where there is no room for discrimination. Those who stockpile their anti-human weapons in their arsenals do not have the right to declare themselves as standard bearers of global security…It is most unfortunate to see that countries possessing the largest nuclear arsenals have no serious and genuine intention of removing these deadly weapons from their military doctrines and they still consider such weapons as an instrument that dispels threats and as an important standard that defines their political and international position. This conception needs to be completely rejected and condemned.

“Nuclear weapons neither ensure security nor do they consolidate political power; rather they are a threat to both security and political power. The events that took place in the 1990s showed that the possession of such weapons could not even safeguard a regime like the former Soviet Union. And today we see certain countries which are exposed to waves of deadly insecurity, despite possessing atomic bombs.”

On Iran and nuclear power:

“The Islamic Republic of Iran considers the use of nuclear, chemical and similar weapons as a great and unforgivable sin. We proposed the idea of “Middle East free of nuclear weapons” and we are committed to it. This does not mean our foregoing our right of peaceful use of nuclear power and production of nuclear fuel. On the basis of international law, peaceful use of nuclear energy is a right of every country. All should be able to employ this wholesome source of energy for various vital uses for the benefit of their country and people, without having to depend on others for exercising this right. Surreptitious moves are underway to consolidate a permanent monopoly over the production and sale of nuclear fuel in centers carrying an international label but in fact within the control of a few Western countries.

“A bitter irony of our era is that the U.S. government, which possesses the largest and deadliest stockpiles of nuclear arms and other weapons of mass destruction and the only country guilty of its use, is today eager to carry the banner of opposition to nuclear proliferation. The U.S. and its Western allies have armed the usurper Zionist regime with nuclear weapons and created a major threat for this sensitive region. Yet the same deceitful group does not tolerate the peaceful use of nuclear energy by independent countries, and even opposes, with all its strength, the production of nuclear fuel for radiopharmaceuticals and other peaceful and humane purposes. The pretext is fear of production of nuclear weapons…

“I stress that the Islamic Republic has never been after nuclear weapons and that it will never give up the right of its people to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Our motto is: ‘Nuclear energy for all and nuclear weapons for none.’ We will insist on each of these two precepts, and we know that breaking the monopoly of certain Western countries on production of nuclear energy in the framework of the Non_Proliferation Treaty is in the interest of all independent countries, including the members of the Non-Aligned Movement.”

On Palestine:

“Our standpoint is that Palestine belongs to the Palestinians, and that continuing its occupation is a great and intolerable injustice and a major threat to global peace and security. All solutions suggested and followed up by the Westerners and their affiliates for ‘resolving the problem of Palestine’ have been wrong and unsuccessful, and it will remain so in the future.

“We have put forth a just and entirely democratic solution. All the Palestinians –both the current citizens of Palestine and those who have been forced to immigrate to other countries but have preserved their Palestinian identity, including Muslims, Christians and Jews – should take part in a carefully supervised and confidence-building referendum and choose the political system of their country, and all the Palestinians who have suffered from years of exile should return to their country and take part in this referendum and then help draft a Constitution and hold elections. Peace will then be established.”

In his own address, Philippine Vice President Jejomar C. Binay, who represented President Benigno S. Aquino III at the summit, said there was no limit to what NAM could do to close the gaps arising from so much inequality, injustice and conflict within, and between, nation-states. “But we must be prepared and be eager to dialog,” he said.

Binay commended the outcome document for reaffirming the Philippine commitment to the peaceful settlement of all disputes and the non-use of force or the threat of force. Then speaking of his government’s effort to gain protection for its 12 million Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), he called on the NAM members to accede to the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

Binay stood out as the only speaker who delivered his message within the seven minutes allotted to the chief delegates. In an unexpected gesture, Ahmadinejad asked him to preside over a good part of the morning session of the second day conference. Then the President asked to meet with him again at the end of the conference, hours before his flight back home.

 ManilaStandardToday.com