Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday gave an audience to Italian and Arab politicians and senior officials attending an international seminar in Rome this week aimed at strengthening political institutions and participation in the Middle East.Vatican secretary of state Tarciso Bertone also met the group.
Seminar organiser, the Rome-based Insititute for relations between Italy and Africa, Latin America and the Middle and Far East (IPALMO)'s president, Italian politician Gianni De Michelis, was among those received by the Pope.
Also present at the papal audience was seminar co-organiser, the United Nations Development Project (UNDP)'s senior advisor on governance in the Arab region, Salim Nasr.
Benedict XVI also received the heads of parliamentary delegations from Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon: Abdellatif El Zein, president of the Lebanese parliament's foreign affairs committee and a prominent Lebanese politician; Mifleh H. Al-Rheimi (photo), member of the Jordanian parliament's public services, tourism and antiquities commission; and Iraqi MP Azal-Deen Abdulla Hussein Albodola.
"Tolerance, understanding and mutual cooperation were further underlined by the meeting with the Pontiff who has made himself a world ambassador for these values," IPALMO said in a statement.
During the seminar, IPALMO and UNDP are aiming to give the politicians from Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon - considered three key states in the volatile Middle East Region - experience of parliamentary practices in Italy, where democracy is a longer established tradition.
The seminar is also intended to give Italian parliamentarians the opportunity to learn more about Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon's democratic institutions and civil society organisations.
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