The Iranians saw the six-day summit meeting of the 120-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) which opened in Tehran on 26 August as a chance to rally support against the economic sanctions imposed on them by the P5+1 as a result of their nuclear activities and generally to project a more positive international image.  Thus Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told the opening session that "the non-aligned must seriously oppose…unilateral economic sanctions which have been enacted by certain countries against non-aligned countries," while Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told the conference on 29 August that "our motto is nuclear energy for all and nuclear weapons for none." Iranian officials also sought to project a more conciliatory image on Syria than their unwavering support for President Bashar al-Asad might suggest. Mr Salehi told a press conference on 29 August that "at a time when many other international organizations have gotten involved in the Syria issue, it is not right that the NAM take a back seat. It was recommended that the NAM troika" – Egypt, Iran and Venezuela plus Lebanon and Iraq – "get involved, with cooperation with other international organizations, specifically the UN." On the same day, Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir ΄Abd Allah told the state news agency IRNA that "Iran's proposal to the meeting of members of the NAM to solve the Syrian issue is to recommend a cease-fire and the implementation of national reconciliation talks in the country."

The Iranians may have been encouraged by the fact that luminaries such as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Mr Mursi agreed to attend - in the latter's case for the first such high-level contact between the two countries since 1979 – despite the fact that Washington clearly disapproved. But it looked as if American displeasure was to be their only reward, since upon his arrival in Tehran on 29 August Mr Ban told Iranian leaders that "Iran needed to take concrete steps to address the concerns of the International Atomic Energy Agency and prove to the world that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes." And the next day he denounced his hosts without actually naming them when told the conference that "I strongly reject threats by any member state to destroy another or outrageous attempts to deny historical facts such as the holocaust. Claiming that Israel does not have the right to exist or describing it in racist terms is not only wrong but undermines the very principle we all have pledged to uphold." To make matters even worse, Mr Mursi then took advantage of the summit to nail Egypt's colors even more firmly to the Syrian opposition's mast, declaring that "our solidarity with the struggle of the Syrian people against an oppressive regime that has lost its legitimacy is an ethical duty as it is a political and strategic necessity. We all have to announce our full solidarity with the struggle of those seeking freedom and justice in Syria, and translate this sympathy into a clear political vision that supports a peaceful transition to a democratic system of rule that reflects the demands of the Syrian people for freedom."

Charles Snow