Syria Top Officials to Attend NAM Summit in Iran

Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi and Foreign Minister Walid Muallem will attend the August 30-31 Non-Aligned summit in Tehran, a top Iranian official announced in Damascus on Sunday.

Aladin Borujerdi, the head of the Iranian parliament's foreign policy committee, on a visit to Damascus, said that Syrian President Bashar Assad informed him at a meeting that Halqi and Muallem would attend the NAM summit.

Halqi was appointed on August 9 as prime minister after his predecessor Riad Hijab defected.

Iran is a staunch ally of Assad's regime but is being excluded from most international efforts aimed at ending the conflict in Syria.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon is attending the NAM summit despite reservations from the United States and Israel, along with 36 other heads of state or governments and 40 ministers or senior officials.