The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM): A Dead and Rotten Corpse

By: Elias Bejjani*
There is no doubt that we live in an era of global political hypocrisy par excellence. An era of deviations and corruption where criminals preach holiness and terrorists advocate for peace and tranquility. Why not, when the all criteria for all that is right and wrong have been distorted and confused. Sadly, the majority of our world rulers and politicians do not respect the intelligence, dignity, or the knowledge of the lay citizens and accordingly have no place or any slight calculations in their conduct.

In this context of political madness, insolence and promiscuity the so called "Non-Aligned Movement" 16th Summit kicked off in the Iranian capital, Tehran, on Saturday August 27/12 under the chairmanship of the Iranian mullahs. The puzzling question that every sane person is asking, is there any rational or truth in tagging the Iranian mullahs’ regime as a non-aligned entity?

The irony in this humiliating drama lies in the shocking fact that 120 countries are actively participating in this controversial gathering among which is al-Assad Syrian dictatorship, one of the most criminal, evil and bloody regimes in the contemporary history. Who can take this summit seriously and even imagine for a moment that these countries are going to draw up a new peace resolution to solve the crisis in Syria or to handle nuclear disarmament issues among many other items on the table?
Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi in his delivering opening speech on Sunday did not waste any time to give this bizarre summit its real identity and to plainly expose its actual Axis of Evil agenda. He with no hesitation took the opportunity to criticize the United Nations, arguing that the neutrality of the world organization is compromised by the inordinate power assigned to the five permanent members of the Security Council: Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom and the United States. He is not happy at all, nor do the Iranian ruling mullahs that the Free World is struggling to prevent them from owning an atomic bomb, nor about the economic sanctions that aims to deter them from doing so. He also called for "Creating a more democratic Security Council and for important UN reforms"
A number of shameful contradicting disagreements surround the participants, the first is that the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon himself is expected to attend the six-day summit, despite protests from the US and Israel, which both called on to the UN head to stay away from the event. Another actual joke relates to Palestine as two leaders, President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, have both declared they received and accepted the Iranian invitation. Syria's Prime Minister Wael Nader is most likely to represent his country.
In actual reality, those countries who accepted to take part in this mere theatrical summit are succumbing to Iran's expansionism schemes, its global terrorism, its threats to all the Arab countries and Israel, its criminal partnership with the Syrian dictatorship to kill the Syrian people, its bloody and intimidating hegemony on Lebanon via Hezbollah, its surrogate army, its global terrorism attacks against Israeli and numerous Western and Arab citizens officials and institutions, its atomic endeavours that pose an actual and very serious threat to the whole world.

While Western countries have tried to downplay Iran holding this summit, Iranian officials are not using any cosmetics in using it as a stage to hit out at the US, saying the holding of the 16th NAM Summit in Tehran proves the "failure" of America's "threat and sanction" policy against the oil-rich country. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amirabdollahian said the anti-Iran policies of the US-led Western nations are doomed for failure. Amirabdollahian described the presence of heads of states and high ranking delegations of NAM member countries in Tehran as important "under such critical conditions arising from developments in the Middle East and North Africa and its coincidence with Islamic awakening movement" in the region. "The threat and sanction policy [of the US] has failed despite pressures exerted on Iran by the US and some other countries," the official IRNA news agency quoted Amirabdollahian as saying. He also said Iran's hosting of the summit would improve its position in the international circles while the US and European Union are facing a severe financial crisis.

Iranian leaders will be boldly using the summit for furthering their propaganda and had already asked many participating countries to oppose all sanctions imposed on their country. The mullahs are also strongly lobbying to secure support for the current Syrian regime lead by the butcher, Bashar al-Assad.
It is worth mentioning that The Non-Aligned Movement was founded in 1961, in the middle of the Cold War, by leaders of nations seeking to abstain from taking sides in the global conflict between the West and the Soviet Union. The first Conference of Non-Aligned Heads of State, at which 25 countries were represented, was convened at Belgrade in September 1961, largely through the initiative of Yugoslavian President Tito. He had expressed concern that an accelerating arms race might result in war between the Soviet Union and the USA. Subsequent conferences involved ever-increasing participation by developing countries. The 1964 Conference in Cairo, with 47 countries represented, featured widespread condemnation of Western colonialism and the retention of foreign military installations. Thereafter, the focus shifted away from essentially political issues, to the advocacy of solutions to global economic and other problems.
It is ironic for the Non-Aligned Movement which started in Bandung in 1955 with senior figures such as Jamal Abdel-Nasser to turn into a movement aligning with regimes that practice tyranny against their people and support with all its might other regimes who practice unprecedented killing and oppression, The proof of this lies in the protection offered by some members of the Non-Aligned Movement to the Syrian criminal regime, against the Syrian people's aspirations for liberation and democracy.
One cannot find any reason for those Arab leaders attending the summit especially that the Iranian regime is their number one threat on all levels. This is a blatant conduct of double standard and hypocrisy.
Among the participants, Bolivian President Evo Morales, Cuban President Raul Castro, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Emir of Kuwait Sabah Al-Ahmad, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, Sultan of Oman Qaboos bin Said al Said, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Senegalese President Macky Sall, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Turkish President Abdullah Gul are among the high-ranking guests of the 16th NAM summit in Tehran.
In conclusion, this summit of shame, hypocrisy and camouflage will definitely achieve one very dangerous aim. It will give the Iranian terrorist mullahs a message simply saying that the whole world is not going to do anything or take any practical deterrent action against their atomic, terrorism and expansionism schemes, and accordingly they can freely continue with these schemes.

**Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
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