16th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement

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16th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement
The summit's official logo
Host country	Iran
Dates	30 August 2012 (2012-08-30) – 31 August 2012 (2012-08-31)
Motto	Lasting peace through joint global governance
Cities	Tehran, Isfahan
Website	www.nam.gov.ir

The 16th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement is being held between 26 to 31 August 2012 in Tehran, Iran.

According to Ramin Mehmanparast, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran, of the Non-Aligned Movement's 120 member and 17 observer states, 50 states will participate with high-level delegations, including 27 presidents, two kings and emirs, seven prime ministers, nine vice presidents, two parliamentary speakers and five special envoys.

The summit's framework was the "Final Document" adopted during the Ministerial Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement Coordinating Bureau which was held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt from 7–10 May. The Foreign Ministry also said that the agenda would primarily consist of issues pertaining to nuclear disarmament, human rights and regional issues. Iran also intended to draw up a new peace resolution aiming to resolve the Syrian civil war.

The summit consists of two preceding events: a "Senior Officials Meeting" on 26 and 27 August 2012, a "Ministerial Meeting" on 28 and 29 August. The leaders summit will take place on 30 and 31 August.

Overview

Main article: Non-Aligned Movement

As of August 2012, the organisation consists of 120 member states, including the non-UN member state of Palestine, and 21 other observer countries. The countries of the Non-Aligned Movement represent nearly two-thirds of the United Nations' members and contain 55% of the world's population.

Since the Non-Aligned Movement was formed in an attempt not to take sides during the Cold War, it has sought to seek a new direction since the fall of the Soviet Union. After the breakup of Yugoslavia, a founding member, its membership was suspended in 1992 at the regular ministerial meeting held in New York during the regular annual session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Organisation

According to Vice President Ali Saeedlou, who is the head of the organising committee, up to 7,000 participants — including delegations and the media — are expected to attend the summit. To prepare for the meeting and reduce traffic and air pollution, a five-day public holiday in Tehran has been called for the duration of the summit. Parts of Tehran have been beautified with lamp posts and freshly painted road markings. Roads around the summit venue will be closed to all but official vehicles. According to Iran's deputy police chief Ahmad Reza Radan: "The police are on full alert during the Non-Aligned Movement summit." In addition, to rise security of the event, visa-free entry to Iran normally offered to nationals from several countries has been temporarily suspended.

The "Senior Officials Meeting" and "Ministerial Meeting" will convene at the "IRIB International Conference Center" (IICC), and the summit will be at "Tehran’s Summit Conference Hall".

Participants

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According to a spokesman of the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 50 countries will participate in the highest level including 27 presidents, 2 kings and emirs, 7 prime ministers, 9 vice presidents, 2 parliament spokesmen and 5 special envoys. By the first day of the summit, 110 delegations had arrived Tehran.

Ali Akbar Salehi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran announced that UN Secretary General, Ban-Ki Moon will attend the conference. He also invited leaders of Russia, Turkey and Brazil to the summit. Mohamed Morsi, current President of NAM, also announced that he will participate in the summit, becoming the first Egyptian president to traveling to Iran since 1979.

Iran reportedly cancelled an invititation to Saudi Arabia to attend the summit. However, it was later announced that Abdulaziz bin Abdullah, Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister, will participate in the summit upon the invitation of Saudi Arabia. Egypt's Mohammed Morsi was the first leader of his country to visit Iran since the Islamic revolution.

NAM members Host country and leader are indicated in bold text
Member		Represented by	Title
	Afghanistan	Hamid Karzai	President
	Algeria	Abdul Qader Bin Saleh	Parliament speaker
	Azerbaijan	Elmar Mammadyarov	Foreign Minister
	Bahrain	Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa	Foreign Minister
	Bangladesh	Sheikh Hasina	Prime Minister
	Belarus	Vladimir Makei	Foreign Minister
	Benin	Yayi Boni	President
	Bhutan	Ugyen Tshering	Foreign Minister
	Bolivia	Evo Morales	President
	Cambodia	Hun Sen	Prime Minister
	Central African Republic	François Bozizé	President
	Cuba	Jose Ramon Machado	Vice President
	Djibouti	Ismail Omar Guelleh	President
	Ecuador	Jorje Arellano	Security Ministry
	Egypt	Mohamed Morsi	President
	Gabon	Ali Bongo Ondimba	President
	Jordan	Hassan bin Tallal	especial envoy
	India	Manmohan Singh	Prime Minister
	Iran	Mahmoud Ahmadinejad	President
	Iraq	Nouri al-Maliki	Prime Minister
	Indonesia	Boediono	Vice President
	Kuwait	Muhammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah	Foreign Minister
	Lebanon	Michel Suleiman	President
	Lesotho	Mohlabi Tsekoa	Foreign Minister
	Libya	Ashour Bin Khayal	Foreign Minister
	Malaysia	Anifah Aman	Foreign Minister
	Mauritania	Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz	President
	Mongolia	Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj	President
	Morocco	Abdelillah Benkirane	Prime Minister
	Myanmar	Wunna Maung Lwin	Foreign Minister
	Namibia	Marco Hausiku	Foreign Minister
	Nepal	Baburam Bhattarai	Prime Minister
	Nigeria	Namadi Sambo	Vice president
	North Korea	Kim Yong-nam	President
	Pakistan	Asif Ali Zardari	President
	Palestine	Mahmoud Abbas	President
	Philippines	Jejomar Binay	Vice President
	Oman	Yahya bin Mahfoudh al Mantheri	Chairman of Council of State of Oman
	Qatar	Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani	Emir
	Saudi Arabia	Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al Saud	Deputy Foreign Minister
	Senegal	Macky Sall	President
	South Africa	Maite Nkoana-Mashabane	Foreign Minister
	Sri Lanka	Mahinda Rajapaksa	President
	Sudan	Omar al-Bashir	President
	Swaziland	Lutfo Dlamini	Foreign Minister
	Syria	Wael Nader al-Halqi	Prime Minister
	Tanzania	Mohamed Gharib Bilal	Vice President
	Thailand	Surapong Tovichakchaikul	Foreign Minister
	Tunisia	Rafik Abdessalem	Foreign Minister
	Turkmenistan	Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow	President
	Uganda	Yoweri Museveni	President
	United Arab Emirates	Saud bin Rashid Al Mu'alla	especial envoy (Emir of Umm al-Quwain)
	Venezuela	Hugo Chavez	President
	Vietnam	Nguyen Tan Dung	Prime Minister
	Zimbabwe	Robert Mugabe	President
Observers
Nation		Represented by	Title
	Armenia	Serzh Sargsyan	President
	Brazil	Michel Temer	Vice President
	Serbia	Ivan Mrkić	Minister of Foreign Affairs
	Tajikistan	Emomali Rahmonov	President
Invited nations (Guests)
Nation		Represented by	Title
	Australia	Gary Quinlan	U.N. Ambassador of Australia
	Switzerland	Wolfgang Amadeus Bruelhart	Director of the Middle East and North Africa at the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs
	Turkey	Cevdet Yılmaz	Minister of Development
	Russia	Vladimir Putin	President
Observer organisations
Organization		Represented by	Title
	African Union	Yayi Boni	Chairperson
	Arab League	Nabil el-Araby	Secretary General
	OIC	Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu	Secretary General
	United Nations	Ban Ki-moon	Secretary-General
	World Peace Council	Socorro Gomes	President

Pre-summit responses

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad commened on the significance of the summit in Iran: "Certain NAM states too have upheld sanctions against Iran which is a totally unwise move because the sanctions are not on part of the UN, rather unilaterally leveled by the U.S. The U.S. can issue any sort of sanctions it wants against Iran but there is no reason other countries to follow suit."

According to the Indonesia's ambassador to Iran, the summit will be "important and timely" under the current regional and international circumstances. He stressed: "During the Tehran summit, efforts should be made so that the path of developments stemming from the Islamic Awakening in the region will continue in a right way and not diverted to violence and conflict."

Agenda

The base of the summit's negotiations' framework is the "Final Document" adopted during the Ministerial Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement Coordinating Bureau which was held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt from 7 to 10 May 2012.

The Foreign Ministry also said that the agenda would primarily consist of issues pertaining to nuclear disarmament, human rights and regional issues. Iran also intended to draw up a new peace resolution aiming to resolve the Syrian civil war. During the summit, Iran will draw up a new peace resolution aiming to resolve the Syrian crisis.

Discussion

Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi opened the first meeting and spoke of NAM's original goal: "We believe that the timetable for ultimate removal of nuclear weapons by 2025, which was proposed by NAM, will only be realised if we follow it up decisively."

Side events and bilateral meetings

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are likely to meet on the margins of the summit to discuss recent developments in India–Pakistan relations and in the region. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon intends to talk with the Iranian leaders about issues such as Iran's nuclear programme, terrorism, human rights and the crisis in Syria.

India, Iran and Afghanistan agreed to set up a joint working group to discuss the development of the strategically important Chahbahar port in Iran.

In addition, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon criticized Iran, pointing out "serious concerns on the human rights bauses adn violation" in Iran, and urged Iran to cooperate with the United Nations to improve human rights in Iran. Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, who sat next to Ki-moon, frowned at the remarks.

In an effort for Iran to prove that its nuclear programme is peaceful, the Foreign Ministry of Iran declared that Iran would arrange for officials from the Non-Aligned Movement to visit its nuclear facilities. In addition, the mangled remains of three cars in which Iranian nuclear scientists were assassinated stands outside of the event venue, as part of an Iranian campaign to demonstrate that Iran has been a victim of terrorism, which Iran has accused the West as being responsible for.

The Cultural Heritage, Handcrafts and Tourism Organization announced an opportunity for visiting delegations to make a visit to the exhibition of Persian handicrafts held at Tehran's Milad Tower. Visiting nationals from the NAM countries could avail of a tour of Tehran's historic museums, palaces and ancient sites in order to get acquainted with Persian culture and civilisation.

Controversies

Attendance of Ban ki-Moon

While it is usual for the UN Secretary General to attend NAM Summits, the presence of Ban Ki-moon was opposed by the United States and Israel. Haaretz reported that Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu had personally appealed to the secretary-general not to attend this summit and described Iran as "a regime that represents the greatest danger to world peace". In addition, according to Maariv, the Israeli Foreign Ministry ordered Israel's embassies to encourage their host countries not to attend or to send only lower-level representatives to the summit.

The government of the United States also publicly expressed displeasure over world leaders attending the summit. U.S. State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said: "We think that this is a strange place and an inappropriate place for this meeting. We have made that point to participating countries. We've also made that point to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon If he does choose to go, we hope he will make the strongest points of concern." Haaretz reported that both the United States and Israel believed that such a visit would break their efforts to isolate Iran from the international community by giving the country a "renewed international legitimacy."

Although the US and Israel had urged Ban to boycott the summit, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky confirmed that Ban would attend the summit. He hoped to meet with Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khameini and President Mahmoud Ahmadenijad at the sidelines of the summit to have "meaningful and fruitful discussions" and to "convey the international community's expectations that Iran make urgent progress on issues including the country's controversial nuclear program, terrorism, human rights and the crisis in Syria."

Still, Ban Ki-Moon signalled that he would not refrain from criticizing Iran at the summit. At the summit, harsh criticism on Iran's human rights record was levelled by Ban, which caught Iranian officials off guard.

Iranian opposition groups urged Ban Ki-Moon to use his attendance at the summit as a way to criticize the Iranian government over its crackdowns on political dissent, such as the house arrest of opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi.

Fatah–Hamas rivalry

In late August, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad invited Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to the summit, despite Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas' attendance being contingent on Abbas serving as the sole representative of the Palestinians at the summit, Haniyeh's office said that he would attend the summit, sparking a counter-protest. Fatah's Prime Minister Salam Fayyad condemned the invitation, accused Iran of being "against Palestinian national unity" and said that only his party's representatives were the "sole and legitimate representative" of the Palestinians. Their Foreign Affairs Minister Riyad al-Maliki said that if Haniyeh attends the conference Abbas would not attend and retierated the stance that it was the only "legitimate Palestinian representative." The Palestine Liberation Organization also condemned the invitation, saying that "Iran joined the Israeli choir which aims to undermine the Palestinian political system and its elected legitimacies."

However, on 26 August, news agencies Mehr and ISNA said that it had not invited Haniyeh. Mohammad Reza Forqani, the spokesman for the summit, said: "Only Mahmoud Abbas has been invited to the NAM summit."

On the other hand, on 26 August, a source close to Hamas declared "After intense consultations in the last few hours, a decision was taken not to attend the NAM summit that will take place in Tehran at the end of this month.” Taher al-Nono, a Hamas spokesman, appropriating Ahmadinejad told this invitation shows Iran's support of Palestine but Haniyeh excused and refrain for attendance in the summit to not intensify disagreements and divides of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims.