Iran, Palestinian crises to dominate NAM talks

Palestinian Foreign Minister Farouk Kaddoumi gestures upon his arrival a day before the start of the Ministerial Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Putrajaya yesterday. The Iranian and Palestinian crises are expected to dominate talks among foreign ministers from the 114-member NAM bloc of developing nations. PHOTO: AFP

The two-day meeting, which starts today is being held ahead of the NAM Summit in Havana in September where Malaysia will hand over the three-year chairmanship to Cuba.

Malaysia's Foreign Minister Syed Hamid acknowledged that the issue of Iran's nuclear ambitions was likely to overshadow other items but insisted the discussions would be broad-ranging.

"I think everybody is interested whether this meeting is going to be inundated with the nuclear issue," he told a news conference.

"Any issue that affects peace, security of the global order, definitely will attract interest, but it is not the only subject. In order for us to achieve economic development, of course the world has to be peaceful."

NAM, which represents two-thirds of the United Nations, counts Iraq, Iran and North Korea among its members -- countries famously labelled by US President George W. Bush as the "axis of evil."

Iran's director-general of international political affairs Pirooz Hosseini said Saturday that he hoped NAM would support Iran's fight against US efforts to force it to stop its nuclear activities.

The United States is demanding sanctions from the UN Security Council over Iran's uranium enrichment activities over fears that Tehran is using a civilian atomic energy programme as a screen to develop nuclear weapons.

Critics say NAM lost its relevance after the end of the Cold War, but Syed Hamid insisted it had an increasingly important role to play.