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Non-aligned nations slam Israeli attacks, U.S. policies
9/17/2006 8:00:00 AM GMT

Leaders of over 100 Non-aligned Movement nations, including the staunchest U.S. foes, attacked Israel over its month-long offensive in Lebanon, which claimed the lives of over 1,000 innocent people, mostly children.

They also pledged support for what they described as peaceful resolution to the current U.S.-Iran nuclear standoff.

In the final declaration Saturday of a summit that gathered some of the world's staunchest American foes, representatives of the 118 nations, issued a 92-page declaration broadly condemning terrorism, yet stating that fighting against foreign occupation should not be labeled as a form of terrorism.

Besides declaring democracy to be a universal value, the gathering also stressed that no country or region should define it for the whole world, apparently referring to the U.S. non-stop attempts to intervene in the Arab countries’ political system.

Non-aligned Movement nations’ reps also defended Venezuela as well as other countries’ rights to determine their own forms of government.

"No one in the Non-aligned 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.

Ailing Cuban President Fidel Castro, who’d been chosen as the president of the movement, stayed at home following doctors' orders.

Acting Cuban President Raul Castro presided over the meeting that included leaders of two-thirds of the world's nations, including Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, Zimbabwe and a number of other U.S. foes.

"The United States spends one billion dollars a year in weapons and soldiers," Raul Castro said. "To think that a social and economic order that has proven unsustainable could be maintained by force is simply an absurd idea."

Also North Korea's No. 2 leader and one of the most vocal critics of the United States, Kim Yong Nam, said his country "would not need even a single nuclear weapon if there no longer existed a U.S. threat," noting that the U.S. financial sanctions have "driven the situation into an unpredictable phase."

Kim moreover attributed the current global unrest to the U.S. foreign policy and its insistence not to respect other nations’ sovereignty which he said has destroyed "the international order."

"The United States is attempting to deprive other countries of even their legitimate right to peaceful nuclear activities," he said. He also stressed that the U.S. has been "abusing the human rights issue" to interfere in the internal affairs of foreign countries.

The United States rejected an invitation to attend the summit, saying it would have no comment on any of the proceedings.

Also during the summit, many leaders urged the UN to end the 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.?"

UN 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," the Secretary General told the Non-aligned leaders.

"The perception of a narrow power-base risks leading to an erosion of the UN's authority and legitimacy — even, some would argue, its neutrality and independence. I have in the past described this as a democracy deficit."

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Chavez vows to defend Iran against any attack
9/16/2006 1:00:00 AM GMT

In the wake of Iran’s current high-stakes nuclear standoff with the United Nations Security Council, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a meeting of the Group of 15 developing nations that "Iran is under threat; there are plans to invade Iran, hopefully it won't happen, but we are with you."

The Iranian president plans a visit to Venezuela, his first, on Sunday, in an effort to strengthen diplomatic and economic ties between the two nations.

Speaking at the Havana summit on Thursday Chavez said: "I ask for full support for the government and the people of Iran in developing their sovereign right to move forward with (nuclear) research,"

"It's part of the formula of the future nuclear energy. We aren't talking about atomic bombs."

President Ahmadinejad has said that he and President Chavez are like “brothers'' in the current heated global struggle, while the Venezuelan leader promised full support for Iran's nuclear program if he won a rotating seat on the UN Security Council during next month’s vote at the world body.

"Under any scenario we are with you just like we are with Cuba," Chavez said. "If the United States invades Cuba, blood will run… We will not have our arms crossed while bombs are falling in Havana or they carry Raul off in a plane," he said, stressing that his country “will stand together with Iran at all times and under any conditions,'' accusing the U.S. of readying plans to invade Iran.

The two leaders are united by strong opposition to the Bush administration’s policies and double standards, largely manifested in dealing with Iran’s nuclear ambitions, as well as Iran's Middle East foe, Israel, which President Chavez accused of committing a new “Holocaust” in its recent month-long offensive in Lebanon, in which over 1,000 innocent people, mostly children, died.

Iran and Venezuela have long sought to inflict heavy blow on the U.S. dollar. Last year, President Chavez announced that Venezuela would move its foreign-exchange holdings out of the dollar and into the Eeuro, calling for the creation of a South American central bank that would hold all foreign-exchange holdings of the participating countries in Euros.

Iran on the other hand, started in 2003 demanding oil payment in Euros, not dollars, although the oil itself was still priced in dollars.

Iranian officials have been hinting at the country’s intention to open an Iranian Oil Bourse that will challenge NYMEX (the New York Mercantile Exchange) and IPE (London's International Petroleum Exchange). Nothing has ever been announced about the date of launching such project.

If Venezuela and Iran managed to create global flight of foreign-exchange reserves away from the dollar and into the Euro, the move could cause the value of the U.S. currency to collapse.