Iran’s Permanent Representative and Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Gholamali Khoshroo chaired the last meeting of the Coordinating Bureau (CoB) of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) under Iran’s presidency in New York on Thursday before Venezuela assumes the presidency next week at the 17th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Venezuela’s Margarita Island.
The meeting which was supposed to finalize the draft for the next week meeting of the heads of the movement at the 17th summit was challenged after the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) insisted on passing the draft proposed by them. Some other NAM members disagreed as the draft had not been negotiated with them. As a result it was agreed to leave the decision up to Iran to propose the draft at a preliminary meeting of senior experts of the member states in Venezuela prior to the meeting of the heads of states.
Another issue of disagreement, which made the meeting last longer than normal ones, was the competition between Algeria and Morocco over chairing the political committee of the 17th summit of NAM which was left unconcluded and Iran was assigned to report the issue to the preliminary meeting of senior experts of the member states in Venezuela.
Since September, 1961, that NAM was founded amid the collapse of the colonial system and the liberation struggles of peoples in Africa, Asia, Latin America and other regions worldwide, the movement has been playing a fundamental role in preserving world peace with 120 countries in membership.
YNG/PR