Spain to host meeting of Muslim and Western nations
Spain will host a November meeting of Western and Muslim nations as part of a plan to fight terrorism by advancing dialogue, officials said.
The meeting will be held on one of Spain’s Balearic islands in the Mediterranean, said Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
It was not known which countries would send representatives to the meeting or at what level, Zapatero’s office said. No date had been selected for the meeting.
The prime minister revealed his proposal for an “alliance of civilisations” in a speech to the UN General Assembly last year. Yesterday, Zapatero said he had the backing of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to start putting the plan into effect. He said Turkey also supported it.
Zapatero has not given specifics, but the idea is to address the root causes of terrorism by bridging misunderstandings between the West and the Muslim and Arab world.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair met with Zapatero last week in London and endorsed the concept.
Zapatero first proposed it after taking office following last year’s attacks on the Madrid commuter rail network, which killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,500.
Many Spanish voters accused the conservatives who governed at that time of making Spain a target for al Qaida by sending 1,300 Spanish troops to support the US-led coalition in Iraq after major combat ceased.
The Madrid attacks were claimed by militants who said they had acted on behalf of al-Qaida in revenge for the troop presence. Zapatero brought the troops home shortly after taking office in April 2004.
