Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is hosting the dinner for leaders attending a two-day U.N. conference to promote a global dialogue about religions, cultures and common values that starts Wednesday. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia asked the General Assembly to hold the conference as a follow-up to an interfaith meeting he organized with King Juan Carlos of Spain in July in Madrid.
"It's quite unique when you expect President (Shimon) Peres of Israel ... and many kings and leaders from the Arab world ... (sitting) down together and having dinner," Ban told reporters.
The secretary-general told reporters he was not going to organize any meeting between the Saudi king and the Israeli president. Public meetings between Israeli and Saudi officials are extremely rare, and many Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, do not have diplomatic ties to Israel.
Ban refused to disclose seating arrangements for the dinner, though he said all guests would be eating the same food.
"But sitting in the same room and engaging in (the) same functions — normally in the past they have not been sitting in the same place like this. That is again very important," Ban said. "I sincerely hope that through their participation in the meetings, and through this social-diplomatic gathering, they will be able to promote further understandings."
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Tuesday, 11 November 2008
Edith Lederer reports from U.N. headquarters in New York that Arab leaders, including the Saudi king, and Israel's president will attend the same dinner Tuesday night, a rare encounter that the head of the United Nations hopes will promote understanding and talks.
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