The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia affirmed its support for the initiative of the High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) on "the United Nations Plan of Action for Safeguarding Religious Sites." The kingdom pointed out that attacks on places of worship and the encroachment on these places is a terrorist act that requires to be addressed, as well as to stand against actions that fuel terrorism and spread ideas of hatred and practices of injustice and civilizational conflict. The remarks came in the kingdom's speech before the meeting of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations held today at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. The speech was delivered by the Special Political and Decolonization Committee's official of the kingdom's permanent delegation to the United Nations Secretary-General Faisal bin Nasser Alhaqbani. Alhaqbani thanked the Representative of the Alliance of Civilizations, Miguel Moratinos, and the members of the Bureau of the Alliance of Civilizations for their concrete efforts to hold this important meeting to exchange views on the High Representative's initiative to safeguard religious sites. Alhaqbani said that many conflicts among peoples, especially those we are witnessing at the present time, are conflicts with intellectual and cultural backgrounds that broke out because of religious, linguistic or ethnic differences. He stressed that the increasing attacks on places of worship and the encroachment on these places, which are considered terrorist acts, require all sides to take a serious stand and to confront these practices and acts that fuel terrorism and spread ideas of hatred and practices of injustice and civilizational clash. --More 00:23 LOCAL TIME 21:23 GMT 0033 www.spa.gov.sa/1933621
