Canberra – The Non-Aligned Movement Summit, a gathering of 120 countries that deem themselves independent of the world’s key power alliances, is meeting next week in Tehran.
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The Australian reports (http://bit.ly/QvOrIi) that the Australian Ambassador to the United Nations and the Prime Ministerial Special Envoy are both scheduled to attend the Summit. Parliamentary opponents fear Australia’s presence at the Summit will allow Iran to claim it has greater international approval, and are calling on the government to call off the trip. Australia participates as a non-member guest.
But Foreign Minister Bob Carr said he does not believe there is any need for concern, as Australia already maintains an embassy in Tehran. Carr did, however, acknowledge that it was unfortunate that the Summit was being held in Tehran since Iranian President Ahmadinejad uses these meetings as an opportunity to attack Israel.
“If there is any of that anti-Semitic rhetoric, that inflammatory anti-Israel rhetoric, from the president of Iran, our ambassador at the UN is under instruction from me directly to be the first on his feet to walk out,” he said.
Australia launched additional sanctions this week against Iran to force it to cease its nuclear program.
In a related story, the Iranian foreign minister today said that Australia’s Foreign Minister would not be tolerated at the Non-Aligned Movement Summit either.