Beirut university professor: NAM must use potential clout to handle global problems

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has highlighted the ideals of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), calling for a global campaign for the establishment of “peace and justice.”“We should defend the ideals of the movement, which are peace and equality, and make efforts for the realization of these ideals,” said Ban addressing the opening ceremony of the 16th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Tehran on Thursday.He lauded the NAM as a key element for maintaining global peace and noted that the movement should work hand in hand with the UN to ensure that global institutions including the Security Council reflect the realities and dynamics of today’s world.The meeting of the NAM heads of state began in Tehran on Thursday with an inaugural speech by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.NAM, an international organization with 120 member states, is considered as not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. It represents nearly two-thirds of the UN members.Interview with Eugene Dabbous, professor at the Notre Dame University from Beirut, to further discuss the issue. What follows is an approximate transcript of the interview.Q We have a recurrent theme which happened at today’s summit and that was the criticism of the UN Security Council and its structure, especially the veto of these members basically the five member bloc. Tell us how you think this is going to be countered by NAM where the UN has failed?Dabbous: Well the strength of NAM would be in its unity and this is the one weakness I would say we have seen so far I mean as long as they were navigating a path between the Soviet bloc and the US during the cold war the cohesion was much stronger. Now I do not see them using their potential clout.If we look at the economic power that they have I think they could achieve this if they would work together but I would like to see some results by Friday where they actually indicate coordinated activities, then they could do it.Q: When you look at the speech that was made by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon obviously he placed the importance for him to come to this NAM summit but when he talked about Israel he did not mention anything other than Iran’s criticism of Israel who unlike Iran is not a signatory to the NPT. Iran’s Leader has called for a world free of weapons of mass destruction. So then comes the question of the sincerity of Ban Ki-moon in what he said?Dabbous: Well he is the world’s most important diplomat and for that reason he is going to remain very diplomatic. We know that Israel opposed him coming to Tehran so I think it was a major success to have him in Tehran and to have the UN openly supporting this event.I think that in itself considering the opposition of the US and Israel is not to be taken lightly.Q: And another important point that needs to be mentioned is the issue of, since we were talking about Israel, the Palestinian issue and Iran has set up basically an action plan of which couple of the points that was adopted yesterday was the fact that their membership to the UN for example has to be tackled not to mention Israeli aggression against Palestinians. Actually this five point action plan to be carried through given that Iran has the presidency through a center in New York dedicated to this. Do you think there is going to be any advancement regarding the Palestinian issue by Iran holding the presidency?Dabbous: Well that would be a major step forward if Palestine would have a full-fledged membership as a nation state within NAM because that would then really put pressure on the countries that are in NAM but also are close allies of the United States and potentially Israel. That would also put the squeeze on them to take sides.And here again we see the problem of unity if that could be used in the next three years to leverage the situation that would be wonderful. We have to see whether he can deliver because I am assuming that Iran will have to do, offer concessions from their part if they want to have major pro-US NAM members supporting Palestinian membership. /129