Abid Ali Abid: NAM will make world listen to it

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The meeting of the heads of state at the 16th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) has kicked off in the Iranian capital, Tehran, with an inaugural speech by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.More than 100 countries are partaking in the NAM summit, which kicked off at the expert level in Tehran on Sunday.The two-day foreign ministerial meeting at the NAM summit wrapped up on Wednesday with member states finalizing a draft document after two days of deliberations.NAM, an international organization with 120 member states, is considered as not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc.Interview with Abid Ali Abid, the chairman of the Organization for World Peace, Denmark. The following is a rough transcription of the interview.Q: The question is, given the fact that the NAM states constitute a wide range of countries, from poor developing countries to the oil-rich countries in the Middle East and to other states such as Brazil which has been able to uplift its status standing - seventh at the global economy, taking over Britain.Right now a country like Brazil is considered as a big power by itself, whereas the Non-Aligned Movement has the non-reliance on big powers on its agenda. How do you define that situation?Ali Abid: There are two aspects of NAM. The first is from the establishment up until now. The circumstances in the world are entirely different now. Some members including Iran are facing the situation which is created by the Zionist countries, the rich countries with powerful armies. The situation is very different now.The people are looking at this situation. 22,000 children are dying every day. The role of the NAM is more important than ever before.The countries like America and its allies are trying to impose, and they have already imposed, some of these sanctions against Iran. There are two basic elements to make a country weaker and weaker, like Iran, i.e. especially on their economy and to impose sanctions.I was astonished! I’ll tell you one interesting thing. My magazine, the “Rational”, annual fee is only 100 dollars. But when the Iranians tried to send the subscription fee, 100 dollars, it was stopped because it was in dollars.We can imagine that when we talk about democracy, when we talk about international public rights, people’s rights, we are facing a very critical situation.There is an undeclared war between the hunter and the hunted. Some powers are trying to capture all powers of the oil, all powers of capital, and all powers of the army. This is ridiculous!I think the NAM initiative to hold a conference in Iran will open doors for better negotiations.You gave the example of Brazil, I can understand. Not only is it the economic model, but there are a lot of other things -- the role of the geographical importance of Iran, for example, the Middle East country, the crisis between India and Pakistan...I think this NAM meeting will tell the world to listen to them, to a country like Iran. I am from, for example, Scandinavia, a very important area of Europe.There is not too much participation from the so-called European Union or from the EEC. There’s no reason that they show their anger. The reason is that they don’t want to listen to and face the truth of the more than 120 important countries, as you said, of the world.Q: Iran is calling for more action, more integrity, stronger commitment to the agenda of the NAM by the members. How do you see that happening in the future and especially during the presidency of Iran? How significant do you analyze the presidency of Iran for the next three years?Ali Abid: I think the NAM leadership is in the hands of Iran. It is Iran’s liability and responsibility to take actions not today, not tomorrow, not the day after tomorrow, but everyday of its presidency, to bring the issues through NAM to the world platform.I will suggest that they can even make their own group of NAM in the General Assembly to be more effective. They can even make a stronger group within the OIC organization, and Asia. There are a lot of opportunities for Iran to not be isolated.I tell you, many opinions including yours… the Danish people, the Europeans, they don’t like the sanctions because it is ultimately affecting the education, health sector of Iran - same as the position with the other countries. /129