UN chief Ban Ki-moon to attend Nonaligned Movement summit in Iran despite Israel's opposition.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon to attend Nonaligned Movement summit in Iran despite Israel's opposition.(MG).Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will attend the summit of the Nonaligned Movement of mainly developing countries in Tehran next week despite strong opposition from Israel and Jewish groups outraged at Iran's calls for the destruction of Israel, the U.N. announced Wednesday. U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said Ban will participate in the Aug. 29-31 summit because he is determined to carry out his responsibilities to the 120-member organization and to raise directly with Iran's leaders the threat to Israel's existence, which violates the U.N. Charter's requirement that member states refrain from threatening other states. Ban also plans to convey the international community's expectations that Iran make urgent progress on issues including the country's controversial nuclear program, terrorism, human rights and the crisis in Syria, Nesirky said. He said Ban is "fully aware of the sensitivities" of the visit, but not going "would be a missed opportunity." 

Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he called Ban and warned him that travelling to Iran "would be a horrible mistake." "To grant legitimacy, however unintentional, to a regime that openly calls for the elimination of another U.N. member state will stain you and the organization you lead," 

Netanyahu said. Jewish organizations, including the Simon Wiesenthal Center, B'Nai B'rith International, the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee, also urged Ban not to go. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said last week that Ban's participation in the Tehran summit would "not send a good signal." 
After the announcement Wednesday that Ban would go, she called on the secretary-general to put his visit to good use and "say directly to Iran's leaders what the international community's concerns are." The U.S. remains concerned that Iran "is going to manipulate this opportunity and the attendees to try to deflect attention from its own failings," Nuland said. "This is a country that is in violation of all kinds of U.N. obligations and has been destabilizing force." Iran's charge d'affaires at the U.N., Ambassador Eshagh Al Habib, sent a letter to the secretary-general Wednesday strongly condemning Israel's threats to attack Iran's nuclear facilities as a "flagrant violation" of the U.N. Charter and efforts to strengthen global peace. Al Habib said it is ironic that Western leaders and the U.N. Security Council have not reacted to "the inflammatory remarks and baseless allegations levelled against Iran's peaceful nuclear program." He reiterated that the Iranian government "has no intention to attack any other nations" but will not hesitate to act in self-defence if attacked.Read the full story here.