NAM could be an alternative to UNSC: Ahmadinejad

In the midst of a diplomatic stand-off with the West over his country's nuclear programme, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday said the world was entering a new era in which NAM could turn into an alternative to UN Security Council, which has imposed sanctions on Tehran for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment. "NAM (Non-Aligned Movement) could now, more than ever, play a significant role in this new phase and settle global differences, block discrimination, create justice and eventually become flag-holder of world peace," Ahmadinejad said in his inaugural address to a ministerial meet of the grouping here. Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and Asia were in the grip of a "flame of war" which had made lives of the people of the region "bitter and painful," he said. The Iranian President criticised the UN Security Council for serving the interests of major world powers rather than all of its member states.