TEHRAN – In a statement issued on Wednesday the 118-nation Non-Aligned Movement said Iran’s nuclear standoff with the West would “only be resolved through negotiations without precondition.”

The NAM foreign ministers also expressed support for Iran’s efforts to access nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
“The rights of all nations, including the Islamic Republic, to utilize civilian nuclear technology must be respected,” the statement said.
The Non-Aligned Movement is an organization of states which are not aligned with or against any major power bloc.
The organization’s objective, as stated in the Havana Declaration of 1979, is to ensure “the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security” of its member states in their “struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, Zionism, and all forms of foreign aggression, occupation, domination, interference or hegemony.”
Iran hosted the 15th meeting of Non-Aligned Movement in Tehran on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The meeting was held amid Iran’s efforts to end a long-running dispute with the West over its nuclear program.
On July 19, Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili held talks in Geneva with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana over settling the nuclear issue.
U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns also participated in the negotiations. It was the highest level of diplomatic contact between Iran and the United States in 30 years.
Also present were representatives from the four other permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany.
Russia, China, the United States, Britain, France, and Germany last month offered Iran an updated package of incentives in return for a halt to Tehran’s uranium enrichment program.
The package, which is a follow-up of an original proposal in 2006, offers nuclear cooperation and wider trade in aircraft, energy, high technology, and agriculture.
The Islamic Republic has also presented its own package of proposals on ways to address international challenges, including the threat of nuclear proliferation, and has said it has found common ground between the two separate packages.
Iran has repeatedly ruled out suspending uranium enrichment as a precondition for talks with the major powers and has said it will hold talks “only on common points”.
The NAM countries also asserted that the International Atomic Energy Agency is the only organization authorized to investigate the nuclear activities of its members.
They also called on the Zionist regime to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and allow the UN nuclear watchdog to inspect its nuclear installations in a bid to make the Middle East a nuclear weapons-free zone.
Since its establishment in 1955, NAM has repeatedly condemned the proliferation of nuclear weapons and has directed its efforts toward full nuclear disarmament.
However, NAM members believe that all nations have the right to access civilian nuclear technology according to international law and that no country should be pressured to relinquish its inalienable right to peaceful atomic energy