Tehran is hosting a major political meet today. The meet appears in the limelight of the global political arena every three-year so as to register an entity's political presence. Also, this could have some positive and useful effects at the international level. That meet was the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement. At the opening session of the two-day summit today, Egyptian President Dr. Muhamed Morsi will formally hand over the rotating presidency of the movement to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the coming three-year term. This would be the first appearance of the new Egyptian president on a world platform. The last NAM summit was held in Sharm El-Sheikh in 2009 during which Egypt took over the movement's presidency from Cuba. Leaders and delegates from about 120 member countries would take part in today's summit, and they include nearly 50 kings, presidents, and foreign ministers. A few days ago, the United States and Israel, in flagrant intervention in the internal affairs of countries and leaders, had issued threats and warnings aimed at mounting pressure on leaders not to attend the Tehran NAM summit. They targeted mainly the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and several Arab and African leaders. Tehran is hosting the NAM summit 51 years after formation of the second largest international body after the UN. The summit takes place at a time when there are increased doubts and apprehensions about the relevance of the movement and its capability to inject new blood and vigor into the entity so as to confront the challenges in the changing world. NAM is regarded as an outcome of the World War II (1939-45), and the direct outcome of the Cold War that was fought between the Western camp, led by the US, and the Eastern camp under the leadership of the erstwhile Soviet Union. The main goal of the movement was to stay away from the policies of the Cold War era and the subsequent division of the world into two blocs. NAM was established with the participation of 29 nations, whose leaders attended the 1955 Bandung Conference, and this conference was regarded as the first official gathering of the grouping. The idea of NAM was the brainchild of three towering leaders of that time — Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and Yugoslav President Marhal Josip Broz Tito. The vision of the movement was to work for establishing world peace without aligning formally with or against any one of the two Cold War camps. The first NAM summit conference was held in Belgrade in 1961. Leaders and representatives of 25 countries attended the meet. Several summit conferences were held at regular intervals until the last summit at Sharm El-Sheikh, the Red Sea resort of Egypt in July 2009. As of 2012, the number of NAM member countries reached 120, and there is an observer bloc comprising 18 states and 10 organizations. At a time when the 16th NAM Summit is being held in Tehran, there are divergent of views about the significance and viability of the movement. Those who oppose the relevance of the movement say: “Frankly speaking, there is no usefulness in spending on NAM meetings, and it is not realistic politically. It is also a deliberate attempt to disregard the changes taking place on the global arena since early 90s that witnessed the fall of the Cold War bipolar system with the collapse of the Soviet Union and its socialist bloc. Subsequently, there was no ground to justify keeping same distance from the warring bipolar forces because there are no such two bipolar forces existing.” As for those who are in favor of NAM's relevance, they say: “The movement is useful in terms of joint economic, cultural and environmental cooperation among its members to a great extent. It had embraced the idea of changing its goals even long before the disappearance of the bipolar forces.” Even if we disregard both opinions, it is more apt to say that Iran now enjoys the backing of a number of countries, which reject imposing sanctions against it and interference in its internal affairs. It is certain that Tehran would take maximum advantage of the summit in its favor, particularly when considering that the summit gives it an international open forum to speak out. The important thing that Tehran is going to present at the summit is its peace plan on Syria. The Iranian foreign ministry spokesman had mentioned this earlier. He told reporters: “The NAM member countries would oppose any foreign intervention or terrorist activity in Syria. Therefore, a new proposal would be presented on the sidelines of the summit and the member states would work on rectifying it.” The call by Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi reemphasizes Tehran's move to take maximum mileage from the summit. Addressing the NAM member countries, he called for opposing international sanctions imposed against Iran in order to punish it for its nuclear activities, claiming that a number of member states are supporting the program. Opening the preparatory session of the summit, he told officials from about 100 member states. “The non-aligned (movement) must seriously oppose ... unilateral economic sanctions which h™ave been enacted by certain countries against non-aligned countries.” NAM is an international grouping that still exists. However, it needs technical changes to survive in the current global political scenario. Regional political developments have changed the world's political map. As far Iran is concerned, Tehran summit would be a golden chance to achieve more balancing in the NAM grouping. Will Iran be successful in scoring gains in its current standoff with the US? It may not get such an opportunity in the future again.
