The Suppression of the True Face of the NAM Meeting

Rooz Online

As all of Iran’s government media are relentlessly propagating the notion that the NAM meeting in Tehran has been a complete success and point to the presence of Egypt’s president and the UN Secretary General as feats indicating its victory in defeating efforts to isolate it diplomatically, Mohammed Morsi’s statement at a session in which he called for Sunni views in Shii countries and criticized Bashar Assad’s regime have brought forward the anger of right-wing groups inside the regime. This extreme response is notable because neither the supreme leader of the Islamic regime nor its president Ahmadinejad made any reference to Syria in their opening remarks.

The anger of the Iranian regime over Morsi’s remarks has resulted in that some officials completely negated his words and pretend as if nothing other than what the official Iranian policies was uttered at the meeting, while some other groups inside the regime proclaimed Egypt to be under pressure from the “Western-Arab axis.”

Iran’s government television 1 did not translate Morsi’s remarks and resorted to fabrication in portraying that his comments were about Bahrain – which resulted in an official Bahraini protest. Another government television network attributed the name of Palestine to Morsi’s remarks, which may be a translation error but subsequent remarks by right-wingers clarified that elements inside the regime intended to manipulate actual words and events to portray to the Iranian nation all participants at the NAM meeting were of the same mind as the leader and president of the Islamic regime.

Some other elements inside the Iranian regime criticized him for his remarks while trying to find common ground between Morsi and Iran.

But Morsi’s unwelcome remarks at the summit are important because of claims of victory going around official and government circles inside Iran since a few days prior to the NAM meeting about bringing the Egyptian president to Tehran. Iran’s government media even went as far as attributing to Morsi remarks about mediation efforts over Syria. It should be recalled that Iran’s initial efforts about a month prior to the summit were focused on bringing the Saudi King to Tehran which would be used if accomplished to indicate Tehran’s legitimacy, popularity and acceptance in the region in the face of regional and international concerns primarily of its secretive nuclear program. When King Abdullah did not agree to send any official representative to Tehran, focus shifted to bringing Egypt’s new president to the meeting.

In his opening remarks, Morsi said, "Our solidarity with the struggle of the Syrian people against an oppressive regime that has lost legitimacy is a moral duty as much as it is a political and strategic necessity. The Syrian people are actively in pursuit of freedom, respect and human justice and Egypt is ready to work with others to end the bloodshed in Egypt.” These remarks provoked the Syrian delegation to storm out of the hall till the end of the session and stunned his Iranian hosts.

But Iran’s government media had varying reactions to this. Raja news, which when Morsi came to power called the him the “doctrinaire president of Egypt” and “Iran’s religious brother” tried to portray Morsi’s comments on Syria as insignificant and presented him to be a person close to ayatollah Khamenei.

Under the heading “Hopeful Similarities Between New Egypt’s Posture and those of the Islamic republic,” Raja news wrote, The first visit by an Egyptian president after the [1979] Islamic revolution and the contents of his remarks at the opening session of the NAM meeting contained many similarities with the positions of the Islamic republic of Iran on the major issues of the world. These are hopeful signs indicating the formation of a new system in the West Asia region and consequently the new world order. Even though internal pressures inside Egypt and the pressures from the Western-Arabic countries to cancel Morsi’s trip to Iran spoke of the importance of the trip, Morsi’s comments on the opening session of the ninth NAM summit indicated that the concerns about Morsi’s presence in Iran were not without foundation and that the position of new Egypt reflect closer to revolutionary Iran’s political positions than is propagated in the Western-Arabic media.”

Regarding Morsi’s position on Syria, Raja news wrote, “Of course Morsi repeated the position that the government of Egypt and Muslim Brotherhood had stressed in the past. This was expected. But the important point that Morsi made about Syria which was contrary to that of the Arabic view regarding military intervention in Syria, is his emphasis on pursuing the peaceful path to end the issue. This position is interpreted to be in line with Iran’s efforts to end the Syrian issue peacefully.”

Using some of Morsi’s comments out of context, the news agency tried to present Morsi to be closer to Iran than to the West.

But other government media such as Kayhan and Javan Online completely censored Morsi’s comments on Syria. Hamid-Reza Taraghi, an influential member of the Islamic Coalition Party with close ties to Iran’s supreme leader, did the same. Speaking to a reporter from outside Iran regarding the censorship of Morsi’s comments, he said, “Mr. Morsi never said anything against Bashar Assad but defended the Syrian government.”

Regarding the walkout by the Syrian delegation after Morsi’s comments, Taraghi said, “This is a lie. I heard Mr. Morsi’s comments myself and the president did not say a word against the Syrian regime. These are fabrications of pro-American media. It is possible that Syria’s prime minister left the session to go to the restroom but not in protest against the comments of Mr. Morsi.”

Contrary to these remarks, Feisal Moghadam, Syria’s deputy foreign minister told Iran’s Mehr news agency that not only did the Syrian delegation walk out in protest to Morsi’s remarks, he added, “We expected responsible remarks regarding Syria from a major country such as Egypt and not remarks that encourage violence and which elements of interference. We expected the Egyptian president to express comments in line with the goals of the ninth NAM meeting but unfortunately his remarks were contrary to the interests of Egypt, the Arab world and Islamic countries.”

Amid this shouting match, university student Basij organization issued an open letter calling on Morsi to reconsider his position on Assad’s regime. The letter charged the Egyptian president of being ignorant on the Syrian issue.

On a related event, Mohammad Javad Larijani, the secretary of the government’s committee on human rights also made televised comments on Morsi’s comments on Syria, which were ridiculed on social network sites. According to Shafaf news site Larijani said, “Morsi’s comments on Syria lacked precision but it was very good that he condemned foreign intervention. Events in the Sinai dessert were the direct American threat to Morsi … if Morsi does not listen to the message of this country what is happening in Syria will also happen in Egypt.”