Opportunity at hand in Tehran

July 30, 2008


Opportunity at hand in Tehran


THE ministerial meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Tehran this week offers an opportunity for the movement to discuss the various pressing issues facing the developing world, notably the economic crises caused by soaring energy and food prices. Surely, the participating ministers are braced to review in depth various collective options that should help the countries involved in coming up with compromise solutions and means for better interaction to address common problems.
The Tehran meeting also offers a forum for NAM to explore the possibility of helping defuse the brewing nuclear dispute between Iran and the US. To start with, they could make it clear to the Iranian leadership that they do realise that the US has been resorting to deception in order to prepare the ground for military action against Iran and that they would not support Washington in this regard. At the same time, Tehran should also be told that the movement's endorsement of Iran's exercise of its rights under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is linked to the Iranians moving to allay regional and international concerns over its nuclear programme. No country's right to exercise its international rights could be isolated from its international responsibilities.
At the outset of the Tehran meeting, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki called for NAM support fir Iran's bid to become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. The vote is to scheduled to be taken in the autumn. The US could be expected to fight Iran tooth and nail against the Middle Eastern country entering the UN Security Council and that is where the NAM could play a crucial role.
The NAM should meet the Iranian request and ensure that Iran enters the Security Council, a status that would help strengthen the UN-based negotiations on the country's nuclear activities and move the file back to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran's membership in the UN Security Council would also bring the country face to face with the council's resolutions on its nuclear programme.
The non-aligned ministers gathered in Tehran should tell the Iranian leadership that Iran should also reciprocate the movement's support by being flexible on regional as well as international issues within the framework of the various charters and conventions including respect for other's territorial rights and the inadmissibility of refusal to discuss bilateral disputes on the basis of international justice.
Such an all-embracing and transparent NAM approach could turn out to be a major landmark in the movement's efforts to reposition itself as the strong collective voice of the developing world.