Deputy Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United Nations Dr. Khalid Muhammad Manzalawi has affirmed the Kingdom's keenness to take every action that would promote the culture of peace, tolerance and dialogue. Dr. Manzalawi made this assertion during the Kingdom's speech on Friday, at the high-level forum on the culture of peace being held at the United Nations in New York, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. Dr. Manzalawi highlighted that Saudi Arabia has consistently reaffirmed its commitment to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter through its efforts at the international level, based on its belief that the promotion of a culture of peace begins with the individual and through his relations with local and international community, as a global citizen, along with the involvement of all segments of the local and international community and its institutions. He added that the Kingdom always exerts efforts within this framework based on three main pillars: Justice, development and protection of human rights. Dr. Manzalawi, at the outset, expressed thanks to the chairperson of the forum for holding this high-level session. He also noted the chair for giving opportunity to all to participate and mark the 20th anniversary of declaration and program of action related to the culture of peace, exchange of views on building and enhancing the culture of peace at a time when all are in dire need for serious work to disseminate the culture of peace at all levels and in different parts of the world. He said: "Despite consolidating the criteria of peace and resolving global conflicts peacefully being among the basic principles on which international law and the UN Charter are based, the continuing wars and armed conflicts globally, not respecting the sovereignty of countries, meddling in their internal affairs and destabilizing them, cause us to face many challenges that undermine peace and peaceful coexistence among peoples of the world. "This calls on us to strive to adopt strategies and mechanisms that are more effective in enhancing the culture of peace at the regional and global levels." He added: "The Kingdom has implemented this by building the local community with all its segments. The biggest evidence for these efforts is the Kingdom's Vision 2030 that focuses on enhancing the national capabilities, encouraging the participation of all segments of society in the development process that is in tandem with the UN goals for sustainable development. "This included the reforms that followed at the national level on empowering women and stimulating the role of the youth in the Kingdom's development march. Meanwhile, at the regional and global levels, the Kingdom activated the goals of sustainable development by building regional and international partnerships that contribute to benefiting the society." Speaking about the Kingdom's efforts in countering terror and violence and spreading tolerance and dialogue among different religions and cultures, Dr. Manzalawi said: "At the national level, the Kingdom carried out many security and awareness programs to counter extremism and fortify the future generation from these ideologies." "These include setting up the International Center for Combating Extremist Thought (Etidal), which was lauded globally. At the same time, the Kingdom strives to extend bridges of dialogue and interaction between the followers of different faiths and cultures through various programs at the national level, represented by the King Abdulaziz Center for National Dialogue, and at the global level via the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Center for Interfaith and Inter-culture Dialogue," he said. Dr. Manzalawi said: "Among the Kingdom's efforts is to resolve regional and global conflicts peacefully through negotiations, mediation or international arbitration. I will mention here two examples of the efforts exerted by the Kingdom to safeguard global peace and security and resolve conflicts peacefully." The first of these was the historic conciliation adopted by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman between Ethiopia and Eritrea. In this regard, the Kingdom's efforts contributed to ending the state of war that had continued for 20 years. These efforts were crowned with a historic peace agreement between the two countries in July 2018 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, under the patronage of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. He said that the Kingdom's initiatives played big role in reaching the historic conciliation agreement between the leaders of Djibouti and Eritrea in Sept. 2018, ending differences and severed relations between the two countries for over a decade. These two agreements and conciliations have had a direct positive impact on stability in the Horn of Africa region. This has contributed effectively to protecting regional and global peace and security. The Kingdom always aspires to and strives to achieve these goals. The Kingdom has stressed the necessity for serious work to achieve global peace and security and has called for the political resolution of all conflicts through dialogue, in line with the international norms and charters, which urge all to consolidate work to achieve peace for the prosperity of peoples and security and stability to push forward the wheel of sustainable development. The objective is also to urge the peoples and countries of the world to instill the values of tolerance and cooperation and renounce all forms of hate and discrimination among peoples and cultures. Dr. Manzalawi finally said that the Kingdom calls upon the UN, and those having interests in this, to participate in presenting practical programs and initiatives that will contribute to achieving the future we are aspiring to. — SPA
