Iran’s FM to attend NAM conference in Algeria

Iran’s FM to attend NAM conference in Algeria

Iran’s foreign minister is set to travel to Algeria to attend a Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) ministerial conference.

According to reports, a high-ranking delegation, including Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham, will accompany Mohammad Javad Zarif in his trip to the North African country on Sunday.

Zarif will make a speech at the conference and hold separate meetings with officials from NAM member states on the sidelines of the meeting, which is scheduled to be held in the Algerian capital city of Algiers on May 26-29.

During the conference, NAM foreign ministers will also decide on issues related to the 17th summit of the movement that will be held in Venezuela next year.

On the sidelines of the conference, there will be also a meeting of the movement’s Palestine Committee, whose agenda has been set by the NAM Coordinating Bureau in New York.

NAM was founded in former Yugoslavia in 1961. The countries of the Non-Aligned Movement represent nearly two-thirds of the United Nations members and contain 55 percent of the world population.

NAM’s purpose as stated in the Havana Declaration of 1979 is to ensure “the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries.”

In August 2012, Iran assumed the rotating presidency of NAM for a three-year term during the movement’s summit in the Iranian capital, Tehran.