The new world order must be based on “partnership,” Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Thursday as he opened the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Tehran.
Khamenei criticized the U.N. Security Council and said it is an “old tool” that enabled the United States and its agents to impose their hegemony through the guise of noble values and democracy.
He also urged to combat the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction as it is a threat to world’s security.
While the West suspects Iran of developing a non-peaceful nuclear program, an allegation that the Islamic Republic denies, the supreme leader said that atomic nuclear weapons do not provide security nor authority to states.
He criticized Israel for having nuclear weapons and said that the Western powers work to monopolize nuclear capabilities.
The summit gathered heads of state or government and senior officials from 120 nations in an event Iran hailed as proof it was not internationally isolated.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon attended the summit despite calls by both the United States and Israel to boycott the event. His attendance is also a blow to Western attempts to isolate the Islamic republic over its disputed nuclear program.
Egypt’s new President Mohammed Mursi also arrived in Tehran on Thursday for a landmark visit, state television showed.
It was the first time an Egyptian leader has visited Iran since the Islamic revolution in 1979. Tehran cut diplomatic relations in 1979 because of Egypt’s peace accord with Israel. Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran has considered Israel as its arch foe.
Iran has hailed the presence of Mursi -- who comes from Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood -- as a chance to thaw ties.
Iran’s state TV in a live broadcast showed Mursi being received by Tehran’s vice president in charge of executive affairs Hamid Baghaei in the capital’s Mehrabad airport on Thursday.
Mursi's spokesman said before the visit that the Egyptian leader would stay in Tehran for only a few hours.
Iran’s Al-Alam television cited unidentified Iranian officials as saying the Egyptian leader would see Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to discuss bilateral relations, regional events, and the revolts sweeping the Arab world that this year brought Mursi to power.
At the summit, Mursi was to deliver a speech starting the two-day summit and officially hand over the rotating presidency of the NAM, held by Egypt for the past three years, to Iran.
The NAM, representing 120 nations, covers much of the developing world. It seeks U.N. reform to dilute the power of the U.N. Security Council, upholds the creation of a Palestinian state, and criticizes Western sanctions imposed on some of its members including Iran.
