NAM News Agency To Start Operation Soon

Tehran, Aug 1, IRNA – Deputy head of the center in charge of organizing the 16th NAM summit, Mohammad Sheikhan, says that the International NAM News Agency will start work in Tehran soon. “Establishment of the news agency has been one of the main goals of the summit which should be materialized,” Sheikhan told a group of IRNA directors. He said in the next two days, volunteer journalists can apply for working for the news agency through the summit website. The 16th summit of the NAM member states will be held in Tehran from August 26-31, during which Iran will assume the rotating presidency of the movement for three years. NAM, an international organization with 120 member states and 21 observer countries, is considered as not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. The organization was founded in the former Yugoslavia in 1961 and its members account for about two-thirds of the UN member states as well as 55% of the world population. NAM's purpose, as stated in the Havana Declaration of 1979, is to ensure "the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries.”/end