(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - A number of world leaders who were going to boycott the Non-Aligned Movement summit currently taking place in Tehran changed their mind when UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced he would attend, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said Monday.
Ayalon, who declined to say which leaders he was referring to, said the argument used by these statesmen was that they could not boycott the meeting if Ban attended.
Ban is scheduled to arrive in Tehran on Wednesday to take part in the summit of some 120 countries who make up the NAM.
“We still have the highest respect for Ban,” Ayalon said.
“We will always work with him on issues of mutual interest.
The deputy foreign minister deflected criticism by those saying that Ban’s decision to go to Tehran, despite appeals by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu not to do so, is a failure of Israeli diplomacy.
Netanyahu, he said, did what he had to.
“We can only ask,” he said.
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