King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, will deliver a speech to the UN General Assembly, Wednesday morning, to further his mission of promoting a global dialogue about religions, cultures and common values. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday commended King Abdullah “for his ‘tremendous effort” in bringing the interfaith initiative, officially called “High-level meeting on Culture of Peace,” to the United Nations. “The anticipated high-level turnout is testimony to its timeliness and importance,” Ban Ki-moon told reporters ahead of a dinner he was to host for the leaders attending a two-day UN conference. Seventeen heads of state and government, including from the United States, Britain and several Arab countries, are expected to participate. UN sources told Saudi Gazette that General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto has invited US President-elect Barack Obama to attend. “I wholeheartedly support the convening of the interfaith meeting,” Ban Ki-moon said. “The values it aims to promote are common to all the world's religions, and can help us fight extremism, prejudice and hatred.” The UN chief said “a statement” and not a resolution would be issued at the end of the high-level meeting, which will be agreed upon by the participating member states. He, however, cautioned that expectations about the meeting “need to be very realistic and practical.” “In fact, the world has suffered a lot because of the lack of appreciation, the lack of understanding, and mutual respect and the differences of opinions in religions and faith and culture,” he said. “This is a good start.” He said similar initiatives made by a number of countries in the United Nations should have “some complementary effect.” “Among them, the Saudi King's initiative will also be very important. We also have an Alliance of Civilizations.” The secretary general had called on King Abdullah, Monday night, to commend him for initiating the interfaith dialogue and for exerting “a great deal of time and energy to converge the differences of opinions into one.” Ban Ki-moon said their talks focused on regional issues “particularly the situation in the Middle East, including the recent Quartet meeting, the situation in Somalia, in Lebanon, the situation in Iraq.” On Tuesday, Islamic scholars from Al-Azhar in Cairo, including Naser Fareed, former Mufti of Egypt, expressed hope that the conference would help globalize the interfaith dialogue. – With additional reporting by Sana Nusseir, Okaz/ SG __
