President Mohamed Morsi at the NAM summit in Tehran as strong blow to the government of Damascus Cairo – Akram Ali A number of Egyptian political experts considered the speech of President Mohamed Morsi at the NAM summit in Tehran as strong blow to the government of Damascus and a stand beside the demands of the Syrian people of freedom and toppling the ‘oppressive regime’. The experts welcomed the speech and considered it a step towards recovering the Egyptian regional and leading role in the Arab region.
Members of the dissolved parliament and members of Liberal Egyptian Party “al-Masreyin al-Ahrar” Bassel Adel said: “Greetings to President Mohamed Morsi for his strong participation in the Non-Aligned summit. His speech on August 16 at NAM was expressive, effective and strong.”
Adel added in press statements that: “ in his speech he didn’t take the side of the oppressive Syrian regime and its supporters in Iran, the hosting country. He also showed self consistency in his solidarity with the Syrian revolutionary forces which counts as principles and ethics, even if it has its political cost.”
Bassel Adel added: “The President’s referral to the late President Gamal Abdel Naser in the July revolution and in NAM initiatives is a sentence that makes us pay attention to that the nations’ history is integral (not separate or divided) and that Egypt is constant while political regimes change.”
Assistant to the Egyptain Foreign Minister and former Ambassador Nagy el-Ghatrify told Arabstoday: “President Morsi’s speech is in line with being a democratically elected President in a country where a revolution erupted against a tyrannical regime.” The assistant considered the Syrian delegation’s withdrawal: “A defeat from the slap they got from the Egyptian position.”
Ambassador Mahmoud Zain told Arabstoday: “The Egyptian position is expected because it is based on the Brotherhood, and the Syrian opposition is based on a significant participation of the Syrian Brotherhood who were crushed during the regime of Hafez al-Assad who is the father of the current President Assad.”
Ghamrawy pointed out that Morsi’s speech represents indirect pressures on Iran to change its position about the Syrian regime, especially after the President’s recent visit to China through which a great deal of understanding between the Egyptian and Chinese leaderships was shown regarding the importance of having a flexible position for the sake of the Syrian people and to stop the bloodshed.
Nabil el-araby, Secretary General of the Arab League considered the 16th summit of the NAM in Tehran influential in the resolution of the crises in the Middle East area.
Upon his arrival to Tehran to attend the NAM, el-Araby said in an official speech: “Holding the 16th NAM in Iran has a special importance,” adding that the summit is a thought and an action, and that the crises can be solved within its framework. He stressed that the summit meetings were always impressive in crisis resolution and that this one as well will be effective in that regard.
The Syrian delegation withdrew from the conference room of the summit during the speech of the Egyptian President where he criticised the regime of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and stressed that what is happening in Syria is a revolution against the oppressive regime. President Morsi added that supporting the Syrian people against the oppressive regime in Damascus is a moral duty.
Walid al-Moallem, Syria’s Foreign Minister, considered Morsi’s statement a call for bloodshed. Morsi said “We must strive to achieve the demands of the Syrian revolution. Egypt has taken the initiative and calls for taking the necessary steps to stop the bloodshed in Syria which is a debt in our throats."