From Tehran: Iran Using Summit To Showcase Victims, Friends
As host of a summit of non-aligned countries, Iran hopes to prove that it has more friends than enemies at a time of multiplying sanctions and Israeli threats to attack its nuclear installations, writes Barbara Slavin from Tehran. One test of the conference's success from Iran’s point of view is how many heads of state actually show up.
TEHRAN — Iran is using its position as host of a summit of non-aligned countries to underline its right to nuclear energy and to remind the world that Iran has also been the victim of terrorism.
Tehran is festooned with colored lights, security personnel and placards hailing the non-aligned grouping — which originated in the days of East-West Cold War divisions — as “a symbol of independence throughout the world.”
Other posters and banners proclaim “nuclear energy for everyone” — a pushback against six UN Security Council resolutions and innumerable US and European sanctions that penalize Iran for enriching uranium and failing to answer questions about possible military dimensions of its nuclear program.
The most graphic display confronts visitors to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Conference Center. There, atop platforms draped in blood-red fabric, are the mangled cars in which three Iranian nuclear scientists were killed in recent years. Israel has been blamed for the assassinations, in which magnetic bombs were attached to the windows of the cars the scientists were driving as they commuted through Tehran’s congested streets. Beside the cars are posters with pictures of the dead men and the circumstances of their deaths.
