UN Chief to Visit Iran Late August

(FNA)- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is scheduled to visit Tehran late August to attend the 16th heads-of-state summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and also to confer with Iranian officials on different issues of mutual interest.
"In addition to the member countries, nearly 30 international organizations will attend this summit, the most important of which is the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon," Iranian Vice-President Ali Saeedlou told FNA on Saturday.

Asked about the level of the participants in the summit, he said that almost all presidents of the NAM member states who have received their invitation letters have promised to attend the summit.

The 16th NAM summit will be held in Tehran from August 26 to 31.

Iran will assume the rotating presidency of the movement from Egypt for three years during the upcoming summit.

Earlier, Iranian officials said that all the members of the Non-Aligned Movement have declared their readiness to attend the bloc's foreign ministerial and heads-of-state meetings.

"All the 120 members of the Movement will attend the meeting," Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting in Tehran last month.

Iran also announced earlier this month that over 30 presidents have announced their readiness to attend the gathering.

NAM is comprised of some 120 member states and 17 observer countries.

NAM is an international organization of states considering themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. NAM is the largest grouping of countries outside of the United Nations.

NAM member states represent nearly two-thirds of the United Nations' members and comprise 55% of the world population, particularly countries considered to be developing.