Khamenei
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says the policies of the Cold War era and the subsequent unilateralism have failed, stressing that a new order is taking shape throughout the world.

"In the recent past, we have been witness to the failure of the policies of the Cold War era and the unilateralism that followed it. Having learnt lessons from this historical experience, the world is in transition towards a new international order and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) can and should play a new role," the Leader said in an inaugural speech to the 16th NAM summit in Tehran on Thursday.

The Leader added that the new world order should be based on the "participation of all nations and equal rights for all of them."

Ayatollah Khamenei underlined solidarity among all NAM member states as an "obvious necessity" in the current era for establishing this new order.

The Leader stated that the main NAM values such as anti-colonialism, political, economic and cultural independence, non-alignment with any power blocs, and improving solidarity and cooperation among the member states remain "alive and steady" after the passage of more than five decades.

"The realities of today's world fall short of those values, but the collective will and comprehensive efforts to change the existing realities and achieve these values, though full of challenges, are promising and rewarding," Ayatollah Khamenei pointed out.

More than 100 countries are partaking in the NAM summit, which kicked off at the expert level in Tehran on Sunday.

NAM, an international organization with 120 member states, is considered as not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. It represents nearly two-thirds of the UN members.