"The Kingdom of Morocco and its ambassador to the United Nations, Omar Hilale, have taken an extremely urgent and necessary initiative to invite the Secretary General and the two main institutions of the United Nations dealing with the issues of intercultural and interreligious dialogue to take stock of the necessary and fundamental role of religious leaders," Moratinos stressed in an interview with MAP-New York.

 "I believe that it is part of the tradition and legacy of the Kingdom of Morocco under the leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI to emphasize the importance of mutual respect and to be able to establish conditions for better understanding between different cultures and religions," said the UN official, who took part in the high-level virtual conference organized by Morocco at the UN on "The role of religious leaders in meeting the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic.

 For Moratinos, this conference comes at "a key moment" in the general crisis linked to the Covid-19 pandemic which is affecting the whole world, in that the Kingdom of Morocco "has been able to emphasize a dimension which until very recently was only addressed by a few entities, whereas today with the participation of the majority of member States of the United Nations (at the conference), it has been possible to demonstrate the importance of the religious for a way out of the crisis".

 "This initiative comes at a key moment that will allow us to follow up, and continue to work, with other leaders and representatives of religions, so that we can all meet in Fez at the end of the year for the World Summit of the Alliance of Civilizations to assess the concrete results of this initiative launched and proposed by the Kingdom of Morocco to the United Nations," said the former Spanish Foreign minister.

 The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations was created in 2005 on the initiative of Spain and Turkey, under the auspices of the United Nations, with the mission of promoting better intercultural relations throughout the world.