TEHRAN: Iran, which sought to use the Non-Aligned Movement summit to win support and repel efforts to isolate it, has instead found its leaders rebuked by the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, over its stance on Israel, and its ally Syria denounced by Egypt.
”I strongly reject threats by any member states to destroy another, or outrageous attempts to deny historical facts such as the Holocaust,” Mr Ban told the summit. ”Claiming that another UN member state, Israel, does not have the right to exist, describing it in racist terms, is not only utterly wrong, but undermines the principles we have all pledged to uphold.” The Egyptian President, Mohammed Mursi, speaking before Mr Ban, told the gathering that Syria, one of Iran’s closest allies, was ”oppressive” and had ”lost its legitimacy”. The Syrian delegation walked out. Iran had anticipated that hosting the summit would show the world it had rebuffed efforts by the US and its allies to isolate the country over its atomic program. Israel had urged Mr Ban not to attend the meeting. ”The summit is not turning out as the Iranians expected,” said Meir Javedanfar, a lecturer on Iranian politics at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Centre in Israel. ”They did not expect Syria to be challenged by Mursi, whose election they viewed as a strategic victory, and far worse was having Ban become the first foreign leader to challenge Khamenei’s Israel statements in his presence in Tehran.” In his opening speech to the summit, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said ”torture and terror are condoned when carried out by US or Zionist regimes”. The meeting is being attended by 24 presidents, eight prime ministers, 50 foreign ministers and three kings. Mr Ban also urged the Iranian government to ”take necessary measures to build international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear program.” On Thursday the International Atomic Energy Agency released a report showing that economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation had failed to slow Tehran’s nuclear program.
