Main focus of Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Non-Aligned states meet in Tehran

Countries like Bahrain, Egypt, Cuba, Indonesia and India belong to the Non-Aligned Movement. (© AP)

Representatives from around 100 countries are convening at the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Tehran, which ends on Friday. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will also attend the meeting, for which he has been criticised by the US and Israel. While some commentators assess the conference as a diplomatic victory for Iran, others fear the rise of a new anti-Western league.

A bloc of anti-Western states

Participants at the conference in Tehran can no longer call themselves "non-aligned" since they are in the process of turning the movement into an alliance against the West, the left-liberal daily Süddeutsche Zeitung comments: "The establishment of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1961 was an attempt by individual states like Yugoslavia, Indonesia and Egypt to avoid the logic of the Cold War. ... But Iran seems to want to turn the entire organisation into the opposite of what its name promises. The staging of the Tehran conference seems bent on creating the sort of bloc that its name expressly precludes: an alliance of anti-Western states - and hence a new confrontation of power blocs. … For individual Non-Aligned members like North Korea or Cuba this may sound attractive. But for real powers like India or China it makes little sense to allow their growing clout to be exploited in this way, and just as little sense for emerging Islamic nations like Egypt." (29/08/2012)

» more information (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Crises / War, » Middle East, » Iran
All available articles from » Tomas Avenarius

Tehran breaks out of diplomatic isolation

Tehran has chosen peace as the motif for both the logo - a dove - and the motto of the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement. Even if it fails to reach this goal it will break out of its isolation, the liberal-conservative daily Corriere della Sera writes: "In the name of peace Tehran is seeking to free itself from the fetters of isolation with which the West is punishing the regime for its nuclear programme and its political and military stance - today regarding Syria, on whose side it stands as a friend of Assad's, and previously as a sponsor of Hezbollah and Hamas. ... But the word peace sounds paradoxical in these times of increased sabre-rattling, when Irael is threatening with war and when a conflict is raging in Syria where thousands of Iranians are said to have been deployed by Tehran. ...  But even if peace remains an unattainable goal, the meeting will be - or to be more precise, already is - a diplomatic success for Tehran. Because with this 'historic encounter' Tehran has broken through the diplomatic embargo." (29/08/2012)

» more information (external link, Italian)
More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Crises / War, » Iran, » Israel, » Syria
All available articles from » Cecilia Zecchinelli

Propaganda coup for Iran

The summit will hardly produce any real results, the state-owned liberal daily Wiener Zeitung writes, saying that Iran will nonetheless use it to make its mark: "The Persians are likely to be disappointed in their hopes that they will land a major coup at the 16th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement. Because nowadays the alliance, which was originally founded as a counterweight to the Warsaw Pact and Nato, barely holds any sway. Many of the countries that are visiting Tehran now often have widely diverging stances on global politics issues, and not all of them - Saudi Arabia for example - are friends of Iranian policy. … The hosts are chalking it up as a victory that even the Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon are travelling to Tehran to attend the summit despite warnings from Tel Aviv and Washington. Tehran's message: As a regional power Iran can't be ignored." (29/08/2012)

» full article (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Middle East, » Iran
All available articles from » Arian Faal

» To the complete press review of Wednesday, August 29, 2012