Iran’s mission to restructure NAM

TEHRAN, Sept. 3 (MNA) -- During the recent Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Tehran, the Islamic Republic of Iran officially assumed the rotating presidency of NAM for a three-year term. This has opened up a new chapter for the Iranian government to make use of the great potential of the movement, which can only be activated through initiating a practical and realistic diplomacy. At the recent summit, some NAM member states again emphasized the idea that NAM should be given a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. However, the unjust structure of the UN and its ancillary organs makes it almost impossible to realize such an objective. The UN Security Council was established in the wake of World War II and was based on the will of the major international powers and the organization still has many structural deficiencies. Any proposal to revise the structure and arrangement of the UN Security Council would certainly be opposed by the five permanent members of the council. Moreover, there is no guarantee that the new veto-wielding member would not follow the agenda set by the powers of the East or the West. Thus, as the new president of the movement, Iran should seek to find tangible solutions and proposals for revising the UN system. The following three suggestions can be useful, if they are taken seriously by the Iranian government: (1) Iran, as the new president, should explore the reasons behind the increasing inclination of governments to join NAM over the past few decades. There is a distinct anti-imperialistic and anti-hegemonistic spirit among the countries that have joined NAM since it was founded in 1961. (2) The movement should be converted into a new organization in order to enable it to pursue the objectives of the member states and to play a more effective role in the international arena. Such an organization would be able to adopt more binding decisions, especially through the establishment of a permanent secretariat and other ancillary organs. (3) Due to the rapid pace of political developments across the world, the members of the new organization should convene annual meetings in order to take the measures necessary for dealing with new developments. The Islamic Republic of Iran is expected to properly manage the process of change in the Non-Aligned Movement so that it can become an effective organization that can actualize the philosophy of non-alignment, as it was originally advocated by the members of NAM. Hessamoddin Vaezzadeh is a political analyst and a professor of international relations at the University of Tehran. (By Hessamoddin Vaezzadeh)