Date:30/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/30/stories/2008073060971200.htm

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Ahmadinejad calls for greater activism from NAM

Atul Aneja

Wants the movement to help resolve global conflicts

— Photo: AFP

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (right) with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Tehran on Tuesday.

TEHRAN: Iran has urged countries belonging to the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) to establish a collective fund as part of an effort to overhaul the existing global financial political architecture.

In his inaugural address to NAM Foreign Ministers on Tuesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said big powers were dominating the world through an elaborate network of institutions such as the United Nations Security Council and the international banking system.

Mr. Ahmadinejad criticised the world’s leading industrialised countries for expanding their nuclear weapon stockpiles while attempting to hamper other nations engaged in harnessing “peaceful nuclear energy.”

“The expansion of nuclear arms by oppressing powers is continuing and other nations’ peaceful nuclear activities are being condemned by these very countries through accusations that they are being aimed at constructing nuclear weapons,” Mr. Ahmadinejad said.

The President said the inadequacy of the Security Council was evident in its inability to stop bloodshed in the Palestinian territories, Iraq and earlier in Vietnam. He added that the role of the Security Council as a “spectator” during the 33-day war between Israel and Hizbollah in 2006 was another reflection of its flaws. Mr. Ahmadinejad criticised the International Criminal Court (ICC) for its indictment of Sudan’s President Omar Al-Bashir.

Referring to Israel, he pointed out that the international legal regime had not taken any action against the leaders who had stated that political assassinations were part of their State policy.

Mr. Ahmadinejad urged greater activism from NAM as the “influence of the big powers was now declining." He called upon the movement to intensify its mediation in resolving global conflicts and meeting economic challenges, including the world food crisis. Mr. Ahmadinejad stressed that “big forces” were responsible for the surge in global oil prices.