Real power is in national will, not nuclear weapons: Ayatollah Khamenei

 

Mugabe and Ayatollah Khamenei

Via Press TV

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says the real power of a country lies in the reinforcement of the national resolve and progress in scientific and social spheres, rejecting nuclear arms as a component of a nation’s power.

“We consider real power in strengthening the national will and socio-scientific advances, not in atomic weapons,” Ayatollah Khamenei said Thursday in a meeting with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe who is in Tehran to participate in the 16th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

Ayatollah Khamenei called on all NAM member states to adopt practical measures through collective cooperation.

Mugabe, for his part, denounced Western countries’ “big lies about defending human rights, law and democracy,” adding that “The record of the US, England and France and their double-standard behaviors towards the developments in the Middle East show that Westerners are merely after oil resources.

The Zimbabwean president said the approach of the West to Syria is indicative of a tenuous and fragile plot to undermine the Islamic Republic.

He also denounced as “ridiculous” the Western powers’ allegations that Iran is seeking to acquire military nuclear capability.

NAM, an international organization with 120 member states, is considered as not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. It represents nearly two-thirds of the UN members.

At the opening ceremony of the NAM expert-level meeting, Iran assumed the rotating presidency of the movement for three years. Egypt's Ambassador to the United Nations Mootaz Khalil formally handed over the presidency to Iran.

Iran's Foreign Minister Says Morsi Visit Is a 'Landmark'

 Via Al Monitor

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Tuesday that his government will not be offended if Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi spends only a few hours in Iran later this week. In an interview with Al-Monitor and Time Magazine on the sidelines of a conference of the 120-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Salehi said the mere “presence” of an Egyptian leader in Iran after decades of estrangement between Iran and Egypt would be a “landmark.” Salehi repeated Iranian offers to help resolve the crisis in Syria — offers that the Barack Obama administration has rejected. The soft-spoken foreign minister, who got his PhD in physics from MIT before the 1979 Iranian revolution and previously served as Iran’s representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency, also said he remains optimistic that a “win-win” solution can be found to Iran’s nuclear confrontation with the US and much of the international community despite the current apparent deadlock in talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1).