NonAlignment Movement might turn out a brand new Iran

By Li Hongmei, Special to Sina English

A summit of leaders of member countries of the Non-Aligned Movement is currently under way in Iran’s capital Tehran. It started on August 26 and will end on August 31.

Representatives of more than 100 countries came to the summit. 36 of them are presidents, vice presidents or prime ministers. The fact that the summit brought together so many top politicians from all over the world is already a success, regardless of what the summit’s outcome may be.

The Non-Aligned Movement was formed in the time of the Cold War. Its idea was to unite countries which did not want to be members of either NATO or the Warsaw Treaty (a military alliance of countries with Communist regimes, which now does not exist).

At present, there are 120 member countries in the movement. The only international organization which unites a larger number of countries is the UN. However, analysts say that at present, the Non-Aligned Movement is not as influential as it once used to be.

When the Non-Aligned movement was formed in the Cold War days, it was the idea to unite countries of the so-called “Third World” that backed its existence. The so-called “Third World “ countries did not belong and did not want to belong either to the “family” of the world’s most influential powers, the US and Western European countries, or to the Communist coalition led by Soviet Union.

Admittedly, even united in such an alliance, these countries did not always manage to be fully independent from both the West and the Communist world. But at that time, the Non-Aligned movement was undoubtedly more influential than it is now.

Today, members of the Non-Aligned movement are not united by a common idea any more.

However, it looks as if at the current summit in Tehran, an idea that may unite the members of the Non-Aligned Movement has been finally found. Practically all the summit’s participants seem to have similar ideas about how to solve the political crisis in Syria.

True, the majority of the countries of the Persian Gulf refused to send their representatives to this summit because their views on the Syrian problem do not coincide with those shared by Iran. But it is undoubtedly a positive sign that Egypt did send its representative to the summit.

Now, Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi came to Tehran with a suggestion that his country, Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia should form a group for contacts with the both warring sides in Syria.

Meanwhile, it is known that Iran has a plan of its own on how to stop the Syrian conflict. In many points, it coincides with the plan of Kofi Annan, former envoy of the UN and the Arab League to Syria.

Iran believes that a dialogue should start between Syria’s current authorities and the opposition, but foreign supporters of the Syrian opposition should not be involved into this dialogue. Iran believes that these “friends” of Syria do not realize the current situation in Syria.

Probably, the most unexpected event of this summit was that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has suddenly expressed a wish to take part in it, even though the U.S., Canada and Israel were against his presence at the summit.

Mr. Ban wants to use this summit as an opportunity for a personal talk with Iran’s top politicians. He is going to discuss with them the situation around the Iranian nuclear program, the observance of human rights in Iran and some other topics.

The summit will end on August 31 with an adoption of the final declaration. After that, Iran will get the right to speak on behalf of the whole Non-Aligned Movement for the next 3 years.

It may be a good omen for both Iran and the rest of the world, as Iran would possibly shrug off the shadow of being isolated and left in the cold, getting increasingly engaged with others, and many a world’s politician might, in turn, stop to look upon Iran as a closed and defiant country.