Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani welcomed the participation of Egyptian President Mohammad Mursi in the 16th heads-of-state summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Tehran, stressing Iran and Egypt's importance as two big Muslim states.

Larijani noted that the presence of Mursi in the upcoming NAM meeting later this month is very useful and beneficial.

"Since long time ago, Egypt and Iran as two big Muslim countries have had close ties and played key roles in the Islamic civilization," he added.

The 16th NAM summit will be held in the Iranian capital, Tehran, from August 26 to 31.

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

NAM is an international organization of states considering themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. NAM is the largest grouping of countries outside of the United Nations.

NAM member states represent nearly two-thirds of the United Nations' members and comprise 55% of the world population, particularly countries considered to be developing or part of the Third World.

It was founded in April 1955 and has 118 members. The purpose of the organization as stated in the Havana Declaration of 1979 is to ensure "the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries" in their "struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, and all forms of foreign aggression, occupation, domination, interference or hegemony as well as against great power and bloc politics."
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News ID 182501