Iran says promoting multilateralism and putting the brakes on the destructive trend of hegemony and exclusion is an important task that should be fulfilled by the Non-Aligned Movement through closer cooperation.
"NAM should continue to be at the forefront of promoting multilateral decision-making and resisting the rising trend of unilateralism," Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told a ministerial meeting of the group in Azerbaijan's capital Baku on Thursday.
This is of immense importance if NAM wishes to pursue its aim of creating a "just and equitable" world order and global democratic governance, he said, according to a text of his speech published by IRNA.
Founded in 1961, NAM is a grouping of 120 developing countries that do not want to align themselves with any major superpower. The movement provided an alternative for nations who did not back either the United States or the former Soviet Union during the Cold War. Seventeen states and 10 international organizations currently have observer status.
***Closer Interaction
In his speech Zarif referred to the recent killings of Palestinians by Israeli military and security forces during protests in Gaza, saying that the free hand given to Israel is a sign of new rising unilateralism, which is once more becoming the main threat to global order and security.
NAM needs to take collective action in international forums to call for the restoration of the rights of Palestinians and condemn these atrocities as well as policies and measures that embolden Zionists, he noted.
"The previous wave of unilateralism in the early 2000s destabilized our region in catastrophic proportions, giving rise to violent extremism and terrorism and exacerbating tensions and crises in West Asia and beyond."
Even today and despite the territorial defeat of the self-styled Islamic State terrorist group in Iraq and Syria, the region is still suffering from the remnants of such groups as well as their suspicious relocations, he told the conferees.
A shift to cooperation and integration is "imperative" to correct the situation, the minister stated.
"We need to strengthen our neighborhoods through an inclusive paradigm of respecting the interests of each other and rejecting the outdated paradigm of hegemony and exclusion that only creates tension and leads to the destructive arms race."
***Nuclear Disarmament
The minister commented on nuclear disarmament and slammed the growing contempt of the US government for international obligations and its plans to spend $1.2 trillion to modernize and build new nuclear weapons that, he said, will lead to a new nuclear arms race.
"Our movement should resolutely pursue its disarmament priorities through the existing mechanisms," he noted.
On Friday Zarif left Baku for the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, which is geographically separate from the rest of Azerbaijan and borders Iran, and discussed a range of bilateral issues with officials there.
