The Lone Alliance
17-09-2006, 05:11
Link (http://home.bellsouth.net/s/editorial.dll?pnum=1&bfromind=2219&eeid=5032647&_sitecat=1505&dcatid=0&eetype=article&render=y&ac=-2&ck=&ch=ne&rg=blsadstrgt)
Nonaligned Nations Blast Israel Attacks
HAVANA (AP) - Representatives of 118 Nonaligned Movement nations condemned Israel's attacks on Lebanon and supported a peaceful resolution to the U.S.-Iran nuclear dispute in the final declaration Saturday of a summit that brought together some of the world's staunchest American foes.
The 92-page declaration also broadly condemned terrorism. But it said movements for self-determination and battles against foreign occupiers should not be considered terrorism.
And while declaring democracy to be a universal value, the movement said no one country or region should define it for the whole world and defended the right of Venezuela and other countries to determine their own forms of government.
The final statements, many of which contain veiled criticisms of the U.S., were to be approved by unanimous consent after another round of speeches Saturday night by leaders of the movement.
"No one in the Nonaligned Movement thinks that the United States is responsible for all the problems, but many think that it is for some," Cuba's Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said.
An ailing Fidel Castro was named president of the movement, but he stayed home in his pajamas on doctors' orders while Acting Cuban President Raul Castro presided over the meeting of two-thirds of the world's nations.
The meeting brought together the leaders of Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, Zimbabwe among other leading U.S. adversaries. Raul joined them in saying a bellicose America had made the world more dangerous.
"The United States spends one billion dollars a year in weapons and soldiers," he said. "To think that a social and economic order that has proven unsustainable could be maintained by force is simply an absurd idea."
North Korea's No. 2 leader, Kim Yong Nam, claimed his communist nation "would not need even a single nuclear weapon if there no longer existed a U.S. threat," and said U.S. financial sanctions have "driven the situation into an unpredictable phase."
Kim, the leader of Parliament, blamed the lack of world peace on the United States, saying its failure to respect the sovereignty of other nations has destroyed "the international order."
He said desires for peace by the 118 countries in the Nonaligned Movement were "confronted with grave challenges owing to the high-handed acts and unilateralism of the superpower, which denies countries and nations the independent choice of development." The resulting imbalance in global politics constitutes "grave threats to world peace and security," he said.
The United States declined an invitation to the summit and said it would have no comment on any of the proceedings.
Many at the summit demanded the United Nations take action against U.S. veto power in the Security Council.
"The U.S. is turning the Security Council into a base for imposing its politics," Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad complained. "Why should people live under the nuclear threat of the U.S.?"
Some leaders tried to resolve disputes with their neighbors: Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed Saturday to resume peace talks, and Bolivian President Evo Morales tried to reassure Brazilians angered by tough energy negotiations.
Others held onto hardline positions: North Korea defended its nuclear weapons program, Sudan's leader rejected a U.N. peacekeeping mission for Darfur and Ahmadinejad insisted on Iran's right to develop nuclear energy.
The final document supported Iran's position while encouraging it to continue cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
Earlier on Saturday, Iraq's vice president, Tariq al-Hashimi, asked the movement for a statement calling on all countries to stop interfering in Iraq and to recognize the sovereignty of his nation's land and airspace. He complained that "life has degenerated" in his country and Iraqi's are suffering because "a war machine has destroyed the infrastructure."
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan agreed the Security Council must be more responsive to less powerful countries.
"The Security Council must reform - for the sake of the developing world, and for the sake of the United Nations itself," Annan told the Nonaligned leaders. "The perception of a narrow power-base risks leading to an erosion of the U.N.'s authority and legitimacy - even, some would argue, its neutrality and independence. I have in the past described this as a democracy deficit."
The Nonaligned Movement was formed in 1961 to establish a neutral third path in a world divided by the United States and the Soviet Union. Cuba last hosted the group in Havana 27 years ago.
It was unclear whether the 80-year-old Castro will recover enough from intestinal surgery to guide the group for the next three years. The ailing rebel icon met in his home with a handful of leaders including Annan and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
So the meeting of the entire 3rd World ends in an US\Israel roast.
No suprise really.
Of course I'm sure the only reason the meeting is even talked about in the news is because.
A: It's in Cuba.
B: Fidel couldn't come and they keep expecting Cuba to collapse overnight without him.
C: Iran and North Korea were very vocal there.
D: OMG Chavez!
Nonaligned Nations Blast Israel Attacks
HAVANA (AP) - Representatives of 118 Nonaligned Movement nations condemned Israel's attacks on Lebanon and supported a peaceful resolution to the U.S.-Iran nuclear dispute in the final declaration Saturday of a summit that brought together some of the world's staunchest American foes.
The 92-page declaration also broadly condemned terrorism. But it said movements for self-determination and battles against foreign occupiers should not be considered terrorism.
And while declaring democracy to be a universal value, the movement said no one country or region should define it for the whole world and defended the right of Venezuela and other countries to determine their own forms of government.
The final statements, many of which contain veiled criticisms of the U.S., were to be approved by unanimous consent after another round of speeches Saturday night by leaders of the movement.
"No one in the Nonaligned Movement thinks that the United States is responsible for all the problems, but many think that it is for some," Cuba's Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said.
An ailing Fidel Castro was named president of the movement, but he stayed home in his pajamas on doctors' orders while Acting Cuban President Raul Castro presided over the meeting of two-thirds of the world's nations.
The meeting brought together the leaders of Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, Zimbabwe among other leading U.S. adversaries. Raul joined them in saying a bellicose America had made the world more dangerous.
"The United States spends one billion dollars a year in weapons and soldiers," he said. "To think that a social and economic order that has proven unsustainable could be maintained by force is simply an absurd idea."
North Korea's No. 2 leader, Kim Yong Nam, claimed his communist nation "would not need even a single nuclear weapon if there no longer existed a U.S. threat," and said U.S. financial sanctions have "driven the situation into an unpredictable phase."
Kim, the leader of Parliament, blamed the lack of world peace on the United States, saying its failure to respect the sovereignty of other nations has destroyed "the international order."
He said desires for peace by the 118 countries in the Nonaligned Movement were "confronted with grave challenges owing to the high-handed acts and unilateralism of the superpower, which denies countries and nations the independent choice of development." The resulting imbalance in global politics constitutes "grave threats to world peace and security," he said.
The United States declined an invitation to the summit and said it would have no comment on any of the proceedings.
Many at the summit demanded the United Nations take action against U.S. veto power in the Security Council.
"The U.S. is turning the Security Council into a base for imposing its politics," Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad complained. "Why should people live under the nuclear threat of the U.S.?"
Some leaders tried to resolve disputes with their neighbors: Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed Saturday to resume peace talks, and Bolivian President Evo Morales tried to reassure Brazilians angered by tough energy negotiations.
Others held onto hardline positions: North Korea defended its nuclear weapons program, Sudan's leader rejected a U.N. peacekeeping mission for Darfur and Ahmadinejad insisted on Iran's right to develop nuclear energy.
The final document supported Iran's position while encouraging it to continue cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
Earlier on Saturday, Iraq's vice president, Tariq al-Hashimi, asked the movement for a statement calling on all countries to stop interfering in Iraq and to recognize the sovereignty of his nation's land and airspace. He complained that "life has degenerated" in his country and Iraqi's are suffering because "a war machine has destroyed the infrastructure."
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan agreed the Security Council must be more responsive to less powerful countries.
"The Security Council must reform - for the sake of the developing world, and for the sake of the United Nations itself," Annan told the Nonaligned leaders. "The perception of a narrow power-base risks leading to an erosion of the U.N.'s authority and legitimacy - even, some would argue, its neutrality and independence. I have in the past described this as a democracy deficit."
The Nonaligned Movement was formed in 1961 to establish a neutral third path in a world divided by the United States and the Soviet Union. Cuba last hosted the group in Havana 27 years ago.
It was unclear whether the 80-year-old Castro will recover enough from intestinal surgery to guide the group for the next three years. The ailing rebel icon met in his home with a handful of leaders including Annan and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
So the meeting of the entire 3rd World ends in an US\Israel roast.
No suprise really.
Of course I'm sure the only reason the meeting is even talked about in the news is because.
A: It's in Cuba.
B: Fidel couldn't come and they keep expecting Cuba to collapse overnight without him.
C: Iran and North Korea were very vocal there.
D: OMG Chavez!