BELGRADE: Cuba and Iran criticized western intervention in Libya, at a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Tuesday, calling on non-aligned countries to work against what they called manipulation. "The role the NATO played in Libya for instance, the manipulation of the UN Security Council was … the latest proof of our (inability) to act," Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Abelardo Moreno Fernandez told a plenary session. "They tell us these are pre-emptive wars, they tell us there is a responsibility (to protect) civilians, but these are all excuses by those who wish to harm the sovereignty of other nations because they want their natural resources," he added. Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Mehdi Akhondzadeh in his speech also slammed "intervention and arrogant policies" which have brought "cruel wars" to the Middle East and North Africa. "International law has been flaunted to intervene in domestic affairs," he said. The Non-Aligned Movement is meeting in Belgrade to commemorate its 50th anniversary of the first summit of Non-Aligned Countries held in the same city in 1961. The founding fathers of the movement were Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito, India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, Ghana's first president Kwame Nkrumah and Indonesian leader Sukarno. It was founded as an alternative to the bipolar world of the Cold War world for developing nations seeking to keep a middle course between the Western and Eastern blocs. The two-day ministerial meeting that opened here Monday is mainly ceremonial and will not deal in depth with the so-called Arab Spring which has toppled or shaken regimes in long-standing NAM members like Egypt, Tunisia, Syria and Libya. The expected Syrian and Libyan delegations did not even show up for the meeting.
