Leader Urges NAM to End Global Bullying

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei underlined the importance of making use of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)’s potentials to prevent the bullying powers from exerting pressure on independent countries.
“If the members of the movement plan broad cooperation within the framework of the Non-Aligned Movement, efforts by the bullying powers to impose sanctions and pressure on independent countries will be thwarted,” Ayatollah Khamenei said in a meeting with President of Guinea Bissau Sheriff Namajo on the sidelines of the 16th NAM Summit in Tehran on Saturday.
The Leader added that the NAM provides a very good capacity for cooperation among its member states in different fields, ISNA reported.
Ayatollah Khamenei stated that the hegemonic powers seek to imply that it is impossible to resist against them but NAM member states can belie such propaganda.
Namajo expressed his country’s willingness to expand relations with Iran in all fields.
Iran assumed the rotating presidency of NAM for a three-year term during the 16th NAM Summit which wrapped up in Tehran late Friday.
Over 100 countries sent representatives to the NAM summit, which kicked off on Sunday with a two-day expert-level meeting in the Iranian capital, followed by a foreign ministerial meeting that ended on Wednesday.
NAM is an international organization with 120 member states that is not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc.

Resolved to Achieve Goals
Ayatollah Khamenei said the Islamic Republic of Iran is determined to achieve its objectives and take serious steps to this end.
Receiving North Korea’s President of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly Kim Yong-nam, Ayatollah Khamenei said Tehran and Pyongyang share similar stands on a wide variety of issues.
The Leader stressed pressures and sanctions should not be allowed to prevent countries from achieving their goals. Ayatollah Khamenei added the two countries have the same enemies because the arrogant powers cannot tolerate independent states such as Iran and North Korea.
The North Korean official, for his part, praised Iran’s achievements in various areas.
He said development of ties with Tehran is Pyongyang’s strategic policy. The Leader also met Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj.
During the meeting, the two sides reviewed mutual, regional and global developments.

Western Proxy War
The Leader, in a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, described the ongoing unrest in Syria as the West’s ‘proxy war’ on Damascus aimed at serving Israel’s interests.
“The reality of developments in Syria is a proxy war against the Syrian government by certain governments led by the US and some other powers aimed at serving the interests of the Zionist regime [of Israel] and harming the

Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant Fully Operational

Bushehr nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr is now operating at full capacity.
The unique project demanded equipment and buildings originally made by Germany to be refitted for Russian nuclear technology.
“The reactor of Bushehr nuclear power plant’s Unit 1 was brought up to 100 percent of its projected capacity at 18:47 local time on August 30,” Atomstroyexport, an engineering company within Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom, said Friday, RT reported. Igor Mezenitsa, a top official at Rosatom subsidiary Atomstroieksport, praised the company for completing Bushehr’s construction, noting that the initial building at the site was launched by a German company in the 1970s.
Atomstroieksport was able to install its own V-446 reactor at the structure built by the Germans. The 1,000 MW nuclear power plant first came on line in September 2011 and reached a 90-percent operational capacity in May 2012. It was then linked to Iran’s national power grid and continued its operation at half capacity.
Initial construction of Iran’s first nuclear power plant, began in 1975 by German companies, but the work was halted following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
In 1995, Iran and Russia reached an agreement to complete the project, but power generation was delayed several times due to a number of technical and financial problems.

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12 Dead in Afghan Twin Bomb Attacks

A twin suicide bomb attack targeted a NATO base in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing eight civilians and four Afghan policemen, local officials said.
A spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said no one from the alliance was killed in the attack, which happened in Wardak province’s Sayed Abad district, Reuters reported.
“The truck bomb was huge, killing 12 and wounding 50 more,” said provincial governor spokesman Sahidullah Shahid.
The Taliban, which took responsibility for the early morning attack, said it had dispatched two bombers, one on foot and one in an explosives-laden truck.
The NATO base was targeted last year on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks when a suicide bomber drove into it, killing four civilians and wounding 77 US troops.
Wardak province saw the worst single incident suffered by foreign forces in over 10 years of war when the Taliban shot down a transport helicopter last year, killing 38 troops, 30 of whom were American, mostly elite Navy SEALs.
Two US troops were killed on Saturday in a separate insurgent attack in eastern Ghazni province, ISAF said in a statement.

UN Censures West’s Threats Against Iran

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has praised Iran’s global status and lashed out at the West’s threats against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program.
At a press conference on Friday before leaving Tehran, Ban touched upon Iran’s nuclear issue and in a reference to the threats by Israel, the US and its western allies against Tehran, he said, “I have condemned the threats by any member state to destroy or delegitimize another,” Press TV reported.
“I have reminded the leaders … throughout the world to lower the volume and stop the provocation that can lead the area down a slippery slope of conflict,” he added. “It is time for more reason and responsibility. I urge you all to resolve differences through peaceful means,” the UN chief pointed out.

Iran Eying World League Debut After Missing Olympics

After a disappointing run in the 2012 London Olympic Games qualifications, which left the team out of the running, Iran immediately began preparations for the World League 2013 qualifications--starting with a trip to Russia and then entry to the Wagner cup in Poland where the team played against Germany, Poland and Argentina.
The first hurdle on the road to World League 2013 will be beating the Egyptian team at their home arena, in front of devoted fans in Cairo. If they win Iran will be able to come home for two matches against Japan, where they can count on support from the stands in their 20,000-seat stadium to give them a boost, Fivb.com reported.
Egypt is placed just ahead of Iran in the FIVB Senior World Ranking, but this year the Iranians have shown that they can succeed against higher ranked teams such as Croatia, Poland and Argentina.
“Tolerating the disappointment of not making it to the Olympic Games was not easy,” said Velasco. “Going to the Olympics is the desire, vision and aim for any sportsman. When this desire went unfulfilled, naturally it had negative effect on the players. But now we have another goal, and that is reaching the World League. My players understand this and they are staying positive. It does not mean they have forgotten the Olympics, but they are thinking about the future. We have played against tougher opponents than Egypt.”

US Drone Strike Kills 5 in Pakistan

US drones fired a barrage of missiles at a vehicle and a house in a Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan Saturday, killing at least five suspected militants, Pakistani officials said.
The strikes in the North Waziristan tribal area were the first since news that a top commander of the powerful Haqqani militant network was killed in a drone strike late last month, also in the tribal region.
Two intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to brief the media, said US drones fired seven missiles at targets in the village of Degan in an area of North Waziristan close to the Afghan border.
They said the area is dominated by anti-American militant commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur, but they did not know whether the men killed belonged to his group.
Bahadur’s faction is alleged to have been involved in frequent attacks on US troops in Afghanistan, but generally shies away from carrying out operations inside Pakistan. Several recent drone strikes have killed militants affiliated with Bahadur’s group.
The CIA-run drone program is controversial in Pakistan. Many Pakistanis call it an infringement on the nation’s sovereignty and maintain that it causes a high number of civilian casualties, a charge the US denies.

NAM Set to Change World Order

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reaffirmed the determination of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to transform the global management system based on the principles of justice and amity.
“All the members underlined the need for fundamental transformation in global management and interactions. All the members emphasized public participation in the management [of the world] based on justice and amity as the foundation of sustainable peace,” said Ahmadinejad in his closing speech for the 16th Summit of the NAM in Tehran, on Friday.
The 16th NAM Summit wrapped up in the capital on Friday, with the member states passing a final resolution, which included 11 clauses.
The final communiqué expressed support for Iran’s nuclear energy program, rejected the United States’ unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic, and called for greater efforts to support the Palestinian cause.
“The occupation of Palestine and the crimes of the Zionist regime in the occupied territories have always been the root causes of tensions in the Middle-East,” the statement said.
“Any solution to end the crisis should include ways to end occupation, restore the inalienable rights of the Palestinian nation, specially their rights to determine their own fate and the establishment of a stable and independent country with the Holy Quds as its capital, as the only way to establish sustainable peace in the region,” it added.
The statement said that heads of NAM member states gathered in Tehran to review the current international situation to help resolve problems which have caused serious concerns for both member states and the whole humanity.
It also said that based on the basic principles of the NAM, the NAM members would make great efforts to establish a world of peace, cooperation, equality and prosperity. The NAM leaders also underlined the formation of a fair, all-inclusive, transparent and effective system of universal management based on cooperation among all countries to confront the current challenges and security and environmental threats, climate changes, immigration and epidemic diseases.
They also said that to address the problems, the present international decision-making procedure on issues pertaining to peace and security is faulty and resists any changes and the United Nations as a global organization should play a basic role in forming a legal and management framework coordinating the activities of states and international bodies on common issues.
The NAM leaders further stressed in their statement that racism and ethnic discrimination are clear insults to human dignity, stressing that appropriate measures and firm decisions are necessary to confront xenophobia, Islamophobia, new forms of slavery and human trafficking.
Underlining the fact that nuclear arms are the most inhumane forms of all weapons, it said the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is no excuse for big powers to keep huge arms arsenals and it is the absolute right of all countries to develop, research, produce and use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

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