Iran’s FM in Mexico; to attend NAM meeting in Venezuela

EghtesadOnline: Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif visited Mexico, where he will meet with his Mexican counterpart Claudia Ruiz Massieu.

News ID: ۷۳۶۹۳۸

15 September 2016

He will then leave Mexico to attend the Non-Aligned Movement’s foreign ministers meeting which will be held on September 15-16 on Venezuela’s Margarita Island.

According to ILNA, the NAM is a group of states which are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. As of 2012, the movement had 120 members. Iran is the current rotating chair of the NAM.

Zarif will deliver his speech to the NAM on September 15.

The NAM’s ministers meeting will be followed by a heads of state meeting on September 17-18, where Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani will be present.

Zarif and Rouhani will leave Venezuela for Cuba afterwards within the framework of exchange of official visits between Cuba and Iran.

He embarked on a trip to six Latin American countries August 22, heading to Cuba, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia and Venezuela in what seemed a makeup for the Rouhani administration lack of regard for that part of the world thus far.

Former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad established unprecedented ties between Tehran and Latin American countries during his presidency (2005-2013). Isolated by harsh sanctions and receiving no invitation from Western leaders, Ahmadinejad traveled extensively throughout the region, establishing even highly personal bonds with the regional leaders.

Some attribute the Rouhani administration’s tardy turn to Latin America as a result of his being engaged in a long and tedious process of rebuilding ties with the West, which culminated in the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action only in February 2016.