President Joseph Aoun (center), Minister of Culture Ghassan Salameh, on his left, and United Nations High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations Miguel Ángel Moratinos, on his right, in Baabda, July 14, 2025. (Credit: @LBpresidency/X)
BEIRUT — High Representative of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations Miguel Ángel Moratinos met with President Joseph Aoun and Culture Minister Ghassan Salameh in Baabda on Monday to discuss an initiative first put forward by former President Michel Aoun that promotes preventative diplomacy as a way to mitigate conflict.
Current president Aoun asked Moratinos for support in following up on the implementation of the initiative, called the Academy for Human Encounters and Dialogue, which the U.N. General Assembly adopted at Lebanon's request in September 2019 with all member states in favor except for Israel and the U.S.
The resolution called for the establishment of a U.N.-sponsored center hosted in Lebanon, which would facilitate programs and projects that promote dialogue between nations, groups, religions, and ethnicities, hosted in Lebanon.
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