NAM Members to Visit Iran’s N. Facilities

(FNA)- Participants in the 16th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit meeting in Tehran are due to go on a tour of Iranian nuclear sites and facilities on the sidelines of the gathering.

The world leaders and officials who are due to meet in Tehran next week to discuss the latest world issues and developments are scheduled to visit different nuclear facilities in Iran, including Natanz nuclear enrichment site in Central Iran.

Uranium enrichment has been a bone of contention in the nuclear raw between Iran and the US-led West in recent years. NAM, as the largest grouping of countries outside the United Nations which includes two-third of the world nations, has always stressed its support for Iran's peaceful nuclear activities, including enrichment.

Washington and its Western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment.

Tehran has dismissed the West's demand as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians' national resolve to continue the path.

Political observers believe that the United States has remained at loggerheads with Iran mainly over the independent and home-grown nature of Tehran's nuclear technology, which gives the Islamic Republic the potential to turn into a world power and a role model for the other third-world countries. Washington has laid much pressure on Iran to make it give up the most sensitive and advanced part of the technology, which is uranium enrichment, a process used for producing nuclear fuel for power plants.

The 16th NAM summit will be held in the Iranian capital, Tehran, from August 26 to 31. More than 150 world nations and organizations have underlined their participation in the Tehran summit meeting.

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