Tehran will host an international conference on "World Against Violence and Extremism (WAVE)" on December 9-10, a foreign ministry official said on Saturday.
The director general of the Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS) of the foreign ministry said officials from over 40 countries will attend the international event, adding, "Five foreign ministers from Pakistan, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Nicaragua will be present at the conference," ISNA reported.
Mostafa Zahrani told reporters, "The conference will become a (regular) international event… the participants will make a decision in this regard in the two-day meeting (in Tehran). At present, a particular country has expressed readiness to host the event next year."
He expressed content with the number of participants in the gathering and said, "The guests are mainly former strategists and political figures of the world. The agenda mostly consists of debate and discussion and no conventional papers will be presented at the event. Over 200 articles have been sent so far, which are scheduled to be complied in a book in two volumes to be published in English, Arabic and Persian."
Zahrani continued, "The conference will not issue any statement and practical instructions will be extracted from the conference on the basis of the president's speech to the United Nations."
On September 25, 2013, President Hassan Rouhani proposed the "World Against Violence and Extremism" initiative in his address to the UN General Assembly meeting in New York.
On December 18, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to approve President Rouhani’s proposal, which called on all nations across the globe to denounce violence and extremism.
On December 20, Iran offered to host an international conference on the UN resolution on the WAVE initiative.
