Iran backs Syria...[ 2914 ]

Iran backs Syrian role for nonaligned

A summit in Tehran also affirmed the right of all nations to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

By Ali Akbar Dareini

Associated Press///Posted: Sat, Sep. 1, 2012, 3:01 AM

VAHID SALEMI / AP

Syrian and Iranian officials talk at the summit of the Nonaligned Movementin Tehran. Delegates had differing views on Syria's civil war.

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's supreme leader said Friday that developing nations have a greater right than the United States or NATO to intervene in Syria, signaling an effort to lead a diplomatic push over efforts to resolve the crisis. The comments came a day after Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi had embarrassed the Iran by criticizing its ally, Syria, during a speech at the summit of the Nonaligned Movement, a grouping of about 120 nations. 
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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met Friday with Syria's prime minister, Wael Nader al-Halqi, and Damascus' delegation to the conference.
"There is a proxy war against the Syrian government, on behalf of some governments led by the U.S. and some other powers with the objective of meeting the Zionist regime's [Israel's] interests and inflicting a blow to resistance in the region," Khamenei was quoted as saying on his website. 
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He did not mention Egypt. But Iran's former ambassador to Syria, Hossein Sheikholeslam, openly criticized Morsi, saying the Islamist leader had demonstrated "lack of political maturity" with his comments.
Morsi - in the first visit to Iran by an Egyptian leader since the 1979 Islamic Revolution - on Thursday called the Syrian regime "oppressive" and said the world must stand behind the Syrian rebels. 
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Sheikholeslam said Morsi "made a big mistake" by condemning the Syrian government in his speech, according to the semiofficial Mehr news agency
Iran sought to use the weeklong summit to assert itself on the Syrian crisis and to counter Western efforts to isolate Tehran over its nuclear program.
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 The United States and its allies say Iran is trying to develop atomic weapons, but Iran denies the claims and says its program is for peaceful purposes.
The final summit declaration, issued Friday, said all countries had the right to development and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. It notably singled out Iran.
The document said all countries should be able to exercise their "inalienable right to development, research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without prejudice" and in accordance with the relevant legal obligations. 
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"The decision and choice of states, including the Islamic Republic of Iran, in the field of peaceful use of nuclear technology and their policies in the field of the fuel cycle has to be respected," it said.
It also condemned unilateral economic sanctions, a clear reference to U.S.-led punitive measures against Iran over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment. 
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The statement made no mention of Syria's civil war, reflecting the huge differences among the nonaligned group's member states and their failure to narrow the gaps.