118 nations to gather in Tehran next week for summit

[Douglas Caddy]

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/08/21/the-south-gathers-in-tehran/

[Steven Gaal]

Dear Sir, Per the standards of Len Colby ,since your information is from CounterPunch , your post is illegitimate and discredited.THE MSM will downplay this very important event. STEVEN GAAL

+++++++++++++++++++++ THAT SAID SEE

Censored Tehran Peace Conference and Media Disinformation

http://www.globalres...xt=va&aid=32375

If anyone needs additional proof of the tremendous censorial control wielded over corporate and alleged “independent” media regarding Western powers' imperialist projects they need look no further than the thorough news blackout of the August 9 Tehran Consultative Conference on Syria.[1] As this censorship ensued, "progressive" news outlets continued their barrage of dubious and misleading information on the continuing turmoil within Syria.

The August 9 Tehran conference was sponsored by the Islamic Republic of Iran, attended by representatives from close to 30 nations, including Russia, China, India, Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Venezuela, Cuba, and the UN envoy to Tehran. Its express intent was to “strengthen all-out regional and international efforts to help Syrian people to find a way out of ongoing crisis and prepare a suitable ground for national dialogue in a peaceful atmosphere.”

Given the meeting's suggestion of dialogue over force the conveners excluded the United States, Britain, France, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Qatar--countries behind the program to destabilize Syria's al-Assad's regime.[2]

The discussion is anticipated to continue as a corollary to the Non-Aligned Movement meeting taking place in Iran in late August. Iran hopes the August 9 conference will be a genuine first step in a peace process between the Syrian regime and internal opposition groups.

Conference delegates emphasized a recognition of Syrians’ grievances while also expressing concern over how “the entry of known terrorist groups and sects into the Syrian conflict” threatens regional peace and security.[3]

White House spokesman Jay Carney dismissed the meeting. "There is vast evidence that demonstrates that Iran has been engaged in an effort to prop up Assad as he brutally murders his own people," Carney asserted. In an interview on NBC television US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice similarly claimed how Iran was playing a "nefarious" role in the Syria conflict, and acting as leader of an "axis of resistance" that was "bad for the region."[4]

At a stage when the terrorist campaign in Syria appears to be faltering, the conference has likely caught US diplomats off guard. “I think the US State Department is freaked out because this is a huge defeat for Hillary Clinton,” political analyst Webster Tarpley stated on Iran’s PressTV. “What is Hillary Clinton’s diplomacy worth when 30 countries—including about half the world when you get down to it—can come together on a pro-Syrian, pro-independence platform?”[5]

Since the Tehran confab's discourse was characterized with a spirit of national self-determination and clearly sought to contest NATO’s deceptive imperialist designs, one might expect the left-progressive news media and blogosphere especially to be abuzz with extensive coverage of the event. Such coverage or commentary has yet to emerge.

#################################

see post # 2 http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=19415

CounterPunch which you (Gaal) also cite frequently publishes a column by Israel Shamir who is a Holocaust denier. // end Colby

Edited August 21, 2012 by Steven Gaal

[Douglas Caddy]

August 22, 2012

U.N. Visit Will Set Back a Push to Isolate Iran

By RICK GLADSTONE

The New York Times

Efforts led by the United States and Israel to isolate Iran suffered a setback on Wednesday when the United Nations announced that Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general, would join officials from 120 countries in Tehran next week for a summit meeting that Iran has trumpeted as a vindication of its defiance and enduring importance in world affairs.

Mr. Ban’s decision to attend the meeting of the Nonaligned Movement, announced by his spokesman, Martin Nesirky, came despite objections from both the Americans and Israelis, including a phone call from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. It was announced a few days after the new president of Egypt, a country that has long been estranged from Iran, said he would attend the summit meeting as well, a decision that had already unsettled the Israelis.

Taken together, the moves reinforced Iran’s contention that a reordering of powers is under way in the Middle East, where Western influence is waning, and that the American-Israeli campaign to vilify Iran as a rogue state that exports terrorism and secretly covets nuclear weapons is not resonating in much of the world.

The meeting of the Nonaligned Movement, a group formed during the cold war, includes a number of other countries that the United States has sought to marginalize, among them North Korea and Sudan, whose president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, is wanted under a war crimes indictment by the International Criminal Court. Although Iran’s hosting of the meeting is strictly a coincidence of history — under a rotating system, Iran presides over the group through 2014 — Iranian leaders have portrayed it as a privilege that repudiates the American narrative.

“The extraordinary effort that the Iranian leaders have put into the summit is intended to showcase Iran’s global role and offer concrete evidence that the U.S. policy of isolating Iran has failed,” said Farideh Farhi, an independent Iranian scholar at the University of Hawaii.

“A case is being made that it is not the ‘global community’ that has problems with the Islamic republic, as repeatedly asserted by U.S. officials, but merely a U.S.-led-and-pressured coalition of countries,” she said. “And ironically the Obama administration is conceding the point by trying to pressure various leaders from attending the meeting.”

Mr. Ban’s decision to participate, which might have gone nearly unnoticed in other years, was particularly fraught now because of the tensions surrounding the host country. Iran has defied United Nations Security Council resolutions to halt its uranium enrichment and has strongly supported the Syrian government’s sharp repression of an armed uprising, a crackdown that Mr. Ban has repeatedly condemned.

Mr. Ban has also castigated the anti-Semitic statements and calls for Israel’s destruction made recently by Iranian leaders, reminding them that the United Nations Charter prohibits one member from threatening the existence of another.

But many diplomats and others said it would have been extraordinarily difficult for Mr. Ban not to go. The 120 countries that are in the Nonaligned Movement represent the biggest single voting bloc in the 193-member General Assembly at the United Nations. It is customary for the secretary general to attend the movement’s annual meetings regardless of political delicacies surrounding the host country.

“A sizable chunk if not a majority of the world’s population are citizens of nonaligned nations,” said Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. “It’s not something the United Nations secretary general can easily dismiss.”

Acknowledging that Mr. Ban has been under pressure not to attend, Mr. Nesirky, his spokesman, said Mr. Ban viewed the visit as a chance to raise the issues of Iran’s nuclear program, its support for Syria and its campaign against Israel directly with his hosts.

“The secretary general is fully aware of the sensitivities of this visit,” Mr. Nesirky told reporters at the United Nations. “He’s heard the views of some of those who said he should not go. At the same time, the secretary general has responsibilities that he is determined to carry out.”

Mr. Nesirky also said Mr. Ban expected to meet with senior Iranian leaders, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “It is certainly the secretary general’s expectation that he will have meaningful and fruitful discussions with the supreme leader,” Mr. Nesirky said. To boycott the invitation from Iran, Mr. Nesirky said, “would be a missed opportunity.”

There was no immediate reaction to Mr. Ban’s decision from Israel. But according to Mr. Netanyahu’s office, he had telephoned Mr. Ban on Aug. 10 and told him that such a trip, even if well intentioned, would be a mistake. “Your visit will grant legitimacy to a regime that is the greatest threat to world peace and security,” Mr. Netanyahu was quoted as saying.

Even before Mr. Ban made his decision known, the Israeli government was asserting that the sanctions effort against Iran was not working, a conclusion that was reinforced for the Israelis because of the decision to attend the summit meeting in Iran by President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt.

“If you’re going there, if you’re paying homage to the leaders of Iran, what kind of diplomatic isolation is that?” Mark Regev, Mr. Netanyahu’s spokesman, said of Mr. Morsi’s decision.

The reaction to Mr. Ban’s announcement was more muted from the Obama administration, which had engaged in a less public effort to dissuade him.

Some administration officials sought to put the best face on the situation, urging Mr. Ban to exploit the moment to convey his unhappiness with Iran’s behavior.

“We think that Iran is going to try to use the event for propaganda purposes and to try to cover up the extreme isolation Iran is feeling politically and economically,” said Tommy Vietor, the spokesman for the National Security Council. “That said, if people choose to participate, we believe they should take the opportunity of any meetings that they have with Iran’s leaders to press them to comply with their international obligations without further delay.”

The American Jewish Committee, among a number of pro-Israel voices in the United States that had exhorted Mr. Ban not to visit Iran, called the decision “a grave mistake” in a statement posted on its Web site.

“Tehran is not the place for the U.N. secretary general to visit, not at this time, not to meet with this Iranian regime,” David Harris, the group’s executive director, said in the statement. “We are stunned that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon would honor a regime that consistently ignores both him and the world body he heads in ways that threaten regional and global security.”

Some said that Mr. Ban’s three-day visit, which begins next Wednesday, could also turn out badly for Iranian leaders, particularly if he raises issues in an unfiltered way to the Iranian public about the government’s human rights record.

Others said that Mr. Ban could surprise critics by confronting or embarrassing Ayatollah Khamenei and his subordinates over their anti-Semitic statements.

“The fact that he’s going is going to be viewed as a victory for Iran,” said Trita Parsi, the president of the National Iranian American Council, an advocacy group of Americans of Iranian descent. “But if pressure leads Ban Ki-moon to express harsh criticism of their statements on Israel, then it could be viewed as a victory for those who had not wanted him to go.”

Jodi Rudoren contributed reporting from Jerusalem, and David E. Sanger from Washington.

[John Dolva]

I think a bit of background may be helpful in understanding western imperialist powers objections by knowing a bit about the history of The N.A.M. and particularly in the context of the growing rejection of foreign influence in Latin America such as the formation of Independent groupings and the withdrawal from U.S. organs such as SOA.

Secretaries-General of the Non-Aligned Movement Name Country Party From To Josip Broz Tito Yugoslavia League of Communists of Yugoslavia 1961 1964

Gamal Abdel Nasser United Arab Republic Arab Socialist Union 1964 1970

Kenneth Kaunda Zambia United National Independence Party 1970 1973

Houari Boumediène Algeria Revolutionary Council 1973 1976

William Gopallawa Sri Lanka Independent 1976 1978

Junius Richard Jayewardene United National Party 1978

1979 Fidel Castro Cuba Communist Party of Cuba 1979 1983

Neelam Sanjiva Reddy India Janata Party 1983

Zail Singh Congress Party 1983 1986

Robert Mugabe Zimbabwe ZANU-PF 1986 1989

Janez Drnovšek Yugoslavia League of Communists of Yugoslavia 1989 1990

Borisav Jović Socialist Party of Serbia 1990 1991

Stjepan (Stipe) Mesić Croatian Democratic Union 1991

Branko Kostić Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro 1991 1992 Dobrica Ćosić^[source?]Independent 1992

Suharto Indonesia Partai Golongan Karya 1992 1995

Ernesto Samper Colombia Colombian Liberal Party 1995 1998

Andrés Pastrana Arango Colombian Conservative Party 1998

Nelson Mandela South Africa African National Congress 1998 1999

Thabo Mbeki 1999 2003

Mahathir Mohamad Malaysia United Malays National Organisation 2003

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi 2003 2006

Fidel Castro^[5] Cuba Communist Party of Cuba 2006 2008 Raúl Castro 2008 2009

Hosni Mubarak Egypt National Democratic Party 2009

2011

as usual Cuba is pivotal., as this tiny island is and has been for so long now. The Havana Declaration was made in 1979.

edit formats

Edited August 23, 2012 by John Dolva

[Steven Gaal]

Iran Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit Sends Message of Peace

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=32473

by Finian Cunningham

---------------------------------------------------------

The summit in Tehran will serve to expose in the eyes of the world the nefarious, warmongering global elite. The gathering will expose the pretenders of “international community” as nothing more than a bunch of thugs who are holding the rest of the world to ransom under the threat of aggression." When the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement convenes in the Iranian capital this weekend, it promises to be the greatest show on earth - a show of international solidarity and peaceful coexistence - in the face of imperialist aggression and threat of all-out world war.

The 16th summit of the NAM since the organization’s inception in 1961 could hardly come at a more crucial moment in world affairs.

Never before, it seems, have the words of Fidel Castro resonated with such urgency, when the Cuban leader declared at a previous summit in 1979 that the international movement stood for “national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries” in their “struggle against imperialism and all forms of foreign aggression”.

Fifty-one years after the NAM’s foundation in Belgrade, the world may have survived the spectre of mutually assured destruction of the Cold War. But in the unipolar world that has since emerged - dominated by the United States and its elitist allies - we are witnessing a grotesque rebirth in wars, aggression and, ironically, a renewed threat of nuclear war - the very causes of malevolence that first motivated the formation of the NAM.

Some 120 nations share membership of the movement, representing 55 percent of the world’s population and nearly two-thirds of the United Nations body. Indeed, the NAM is sometimes referred to as the “real United Nations” as it is seen to be more democratically representative of the mutual interests of the world’s majority than the Western-dominated UN with its self-appointed Security Council.

While the United States and Western allies arrogantly invoke the mantle of “the international community, “the Non-Aligned Movement can rightfully lay claim to this title, with appropriate legitimacy. When the US and former colonial powers Britain and France talk about “the international community,” what this actually refers to is their own cabal of elite power and unilateral geopolitical self-interest. Today, the Cold War’s supposed peace dividend is a cynical pipe dream. Member states of the NAM are being assaulted or suffering from the belligerent ravages of the pseudo international community - the partisan powers of the US and its NATO allies. Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Pakistan among others. Unlike the NAM, which has denounced aggression and interference, when has the United Nations ever made such condemnation? In fact, the UN has shamefully given moral and diplomatic cover to these illegal wars.

Also, unlike the UN, the NAM has explicitly called for nuclear disarmament by the global elite that continues to possess tens of thousands of weapons of mass destruction in breach of their obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Syria, a member of NAM, is being assailed by a US-led axis of powers that include Britain, France, Germany, Turkey and Israel in a covert imperialist war of aggression. None of these powers are, of course, members of the NAM. They instead constitute the global gang of rogue states led by Washington.

In its attempted destruction of Syria, the US-led axis is aided and abetted by the Persian Gulf dictatorships of Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The Arab monarchies are officially members of the NAM but it is unlikely that they will attend the conference in Tehran for obvious reprehensible reasons.

In this way, the summit in Tehran will serve to expose in the eyes of the world the nefarious, warmongering global elite. The gathering will expose the pretenders of “international community” as nothing more than a bunch of thugs who are holding the rest of the world to ransom under the threat of aggression. It will show that this elite and its claims of upholding international law and human rights is but a fraudulent clique of racketeers whose relentless, rapacious pursuit of imperialist profiteering is the scourge of the earth and of world peace.

It is poetic justice that Iran should have the honour of hosting this historic event. For nearly a decade now the Islamic Republic has had to live under the threat of war from the United States and its henchmen. Over the past year, these threats have been ratcheted up to decibel levels. In a world dominated by rogue states, the US, Britain and France and their illegal nuclear-powered attack dog, Israel, have the audacity to daily threaten Iran with military strikes and, by doing so, cast a shadow of annihilation on the rest of the world.

Iran is the other NAM member that is currently being subjected to a war of aggression. Sabotage of infrastructure, assassination of its scientists and abduction of citizens, such as Iranian mother Shahrzad Mirgholikhan, who was tortured for five years in an American prison, are part of this warfare. So too are criminal embargoes against the country’s economy, orchestrated by Washington.

This heinous criminality, based on suspicion and lies, is all because Iran is pursuing its legally entitled right to develop nuclear energy and to maintain its political independence.

But the poetic justice of the NAM summit is that the majority of the world is standing with Iran in the face of this aggression. Countries from as far as Mexico and Brazil to Indonesia and Malaysia are clearly saying that Iran has the right to develop on its own terms without interference or hegemonic spoiling.

Over 100 nations will be in attendance. Some 35 countries are sending heads of state to Tehran. A further 21 governments will be represented by foreign ministers.

Among those attending is Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, accompanied by a delegation of 150 officials. Delegates from the NAM’s observer countries, including China, Russia and Brazil, are also expected.

One historic presence will be Egypt’s new president, Mohamed Morsi. This will be the first top-level visit between the two countries since relations were severed in 1978 when the Egyptian regime aligned then with the US against the Iranian revolution.

In defiance of arm-twisting by Washington and its lynch mob, nations from Latin America, Africa and Asia are making their way to Tehran. Underscoring their independence and solidarity, and fitting for the occasion, many of these nations are now reported to be resuming export contracts for Iranian oil, shaking off recent American and European sanctions.

It is a sign of the times that even the hapless secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, has announced his attendance. Israel’s megalomaniac Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Ban’s decision to go to Iran as “a big mistake,” while Washington sullenly described it as “a bit strange”.

However, Ban needs to do more than just show up. He needs to somehow find the backbone to speak out categorically against the US-led violence against Iran and Syria. That is doubtful given his supine silence over Washington’s criminal depredations and drone assassinations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Pakistan and Somalia. But nevertheless, the mere fact that Ban is going to Tehran, despite Washington’s pressure, is in itself testimony to Iran’s righteousness.

In the face of US-led imperialist aggression in several regions, the countries of the world are standing up and saying: “Enough is enough”. Ironically, Washington’s death wishes on the world are being exposed for what they are, and in its attempt to isolate Iran it is the one ending up being isolated, diminished and disgraced. So long vilified by Washington and its quislings, Iran is now being vindicated by the rest of the world.

One final irony is that when the Cold War between the US and Soviet superpowers ended 20 years ago, some analysts believed that the Non-Aligned Movement would become redundant, an organization no longer with purpose. Two decades on, the NAM is rising to the occasion with more relevance than ever and is perhaps realising its true moment of merit for the cause of world peace and solidarity.

Its founding fathers, Josip Tito of Yugoslavia, Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Egypt’s Gamal Nasser, Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah and Sukarno of Indonesia are no doubt smiling broadly and having the final laugh.