Prominent journalists and Middle East experts, including senior officials and lawmakers from Israel and the Palestinian Authority, will gather in Paris next week at an international media encounter on the question of Palestine, organized by the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI).
Held June 18-19 at the Paris headquarters of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the event will discuss the status of the Middle East peace process and media coverage of the conflict, said the UN online news service.
It will also focus on the UN's role in resolving the Palestine question and in the overall search for peace in the Middle East.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who is currently in the Middle East to bolster international efforts to get the peace process back on track, will send a message to the event.
The secretary general of the French Foreign Ministry, Loïc Hennekinne, and UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Masuura, will also welcome participants.
UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Terje Roed-Larsen will deliver the keynote address, said the UN.
Also slated to address the session will be Nabil Shaatth, minister of planning and international cooperation of the Palestinian Authority, as well as Uri Savir, a former member of the Israeli Knesset and Robert Malley, formerly with the US National Security Council.
The encounter, which will be moderated by the interim head of the DPI, Shashi Tharoor, will also feature addresses by Ibra Deguène Ka, chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, and Nasser Al Kidwa, permanent observer of Palestine to the UN.
The Paris media event will be the ninth in a series launched by DPI 10 years go to support the search for peace in the Middle East and to raise awareness about the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, said the news service – Albawaba.com
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