NEW YORK, United Nations Holding concurrently the millennium summit and conference on dialog among civilizations' by the UN indicates that the world body attaches great importance to the proposed dialog as a new paradigm in international relations, said Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's deputy foreign minister for international and legal affairs on Tuesday. Zarif told IRNA that the proposed dialog among civilizations' is an international scheme which will be neither confined to a single country nor to a regional or even an international organization.
The deputy minister also elaborated on contributions of the UN and Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to the idea of dialog among civilizations'. The UN conference on dialog among civilizations' will convene its work in a few hours' time with the delivery of speeches by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the director general of the UNESCO and Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, who is the architecture of the proposed dialog. President Khatami in 1998 while addressing the 53rd UN General Assembly had proposed the naming of the year 2001 as the year of dialog among civilizations' which was later unanimously approved by the assembly.
Selective leaders from the five continents who are also attending the UN conference will also deliver speeches in the morning session of the conference. The afternoon session is devoted to speeches which will be made by thinkers and researchers.
(IRNA)