Iran to Assume NAM’s Presidency for 3 Years This Summer

Iran is due to assume presidency of the Non-Aligned Movement during the grouping’s upcoming heads-of-state summit in Tehran in August, a senior official announced on Tuesday.

“God willing, Iran’s president (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) who will preside the NAM summit (in Tehran) will assume the presidency of the international grouping for three years,” Director-General of the Iranian Presidential Office for International Affairs Mohammad Reza Forqani told FNA on Tuesday.

He reminded that the NAM summit will be the biggest international gathering ever held in Iran, and said certainly the summit will serve as a milestone in the Islamic Republic’s foreign policy.

Forqani reiterated that nearly 150 countries and international organizations are scheduled to attend the summit, and added, “International organizations like the UN, the ECO (the Economic Cooperation Organization) and the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will participate in the conference.”

The 16th NAM summit will be held in the Iranian capital, Tehran, from August 26 to 31.

NAM is comprised of some 120 member states and 17 observer countries.

NAM is an international organization of states considering themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. NAM is the largest grouping of countries outside of the United Nations.

NAM member states represent nearly two-thirds of the United Nations’ members and comprise 55% of the world population, particularly countries considered to be developing or part of the Third World.

The movement is largely the brainchild of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, former President of Egypt Jamal Abdul Nasser, and former Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito.

It was founded in April 1955 and has 118 members. The purpose of the organization as stated in the Havana Declaration of 1979 is to ensure “the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries” in their “struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, and all forms of foreign aggression, occupation, domination, interference or hegemony as well as against great power and bloc politics.”