The United Nations General Assembly, meeting in New York, voted Monday with a majority of 165 votes in favor of the project to create a "Academy for Human Encounters and Dialogue" in Lebanon, supported by the President Michel Aoun since September 2017. Only two countries voted against this project, Israel and the United States.According to Lebanese ambassador to the United Nations Amale Moudallali, who presented the project in New York before the vote, the initiative led by the head of state is intended to "give Lebanon, the region and the world a new space in which peace, dialogue, mutual understanding and culture of peace can exist and flourish ", adding in a speech that" Lebanon has remained a beacon of coexistence despite difficulties and history " .
Michel Aoun was quick to react, welcoming a vote that "gives a new impetus to Lebanon to move forward to implement this initiative that helps to restore dialogue and reject violence and violence. "extremism", according to statements reported by the Twitter account of the Lebanese presidency. "The creation of the Human Academy for encounter and dialogue places Lebanon in its natural place as a figurehead, in terms of the dialogue of cultures, in spreading the message of encounter and communication between people. peoples ", continues the Head of State, reaffirming that the cooperation with" the countries brothers and friends "will continue" in order to spread the culture of dialogue and the knowledge of the other, especially the younger generation, this which is in conformity with the charter and the objectives of the United Nations ".
It was in September 2017 that the Head of State had proposed the candidacy of Lebanon to host this UN body, in a speech at the UN forum. "Lebanon is more than a country, it is a message of tolerance, the antidote to the poison of fanaticism.It stands out by its diversity, it is in total opposition to attempts at unique thinking such as Daech and all societies built on the same principle, the role of the United Nations is to fight these ideologies, beware, they have no borders and have become like viruses spreading electronically through all the communication networks of the world. Proposes the candidacy of Lebanon as the official and permanent seat of the dialogue between civilizations, religions and ethnic groups, an organization dependent on the United Nations, "he declared on 21 September 2017.Last October, Mr. Aoun announced at the Seventeenth Francophonie Summit in Yerevan that he had formally presented to the United Nations the candidacy of Lebanon to become the official seat of this academy whose main mission would be the spread of the dialogue between civilizations, religions and ethnic groups, which would, according to him, establish a culture of peace.Since then, President Aoun has promoted his idea during his travels abroad and to all foreign visitors to Lebanon. Minister Salim Jreissati went to France last March for this purpose, while Lebanon's ambassador to the United Nations monitored permanent diplomats accredited to the UN.
