Qatar to Host Ninth US-Islamic World Forum from May 29

Doha, May 23 (QNA) - Brookings Institution in conjunction with the State of Qatar will host the Ninth Annual United States-Islamic World Forum here from May 29 to 31. Top thinkers from Islamic world, policy-makers and representatives of political parties, human rights activists, ministers, government officials and special envoys of US will be attending the three-day forum to be held at Ritz Carlton Hotel in Qatar, according to Brookings. This annual conference gives a platform for key officials and policy-makers to engage in a positive dialogue between the East and the West. Among the prominent attendees and speakers in the tentative list for the Forum are Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Tawakkol Karman, US Special Envoy to the OIC Rashad Hussain; US Special Representative to Muslim Communities Farah Pandith; Deputy Speaker of Egyptian Parliament Ashraf Thabet; Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar; Egyptian Human Rights Activist Hossam Bahgat; National Front, Libya Mohammed Abdullah, National Security Council Steve Simon and Author Karen Armstrong. In past years, the Forum has played host to an impressive number of high-level U.S. and Muslim world officials, including President Clinton, CentCom chiefs Admiral William Fallon and General David Patraeus, Iraqi Prime Minister Barham Salih, and President Hamid Karzai. Forum participants have included executives from major international corporations that operate in the Middle East, Gulf, and Asia-Pacific regions, government officials representing foreign and defense ministries, as well as writers and artists from across the Muslim world. Among the keynote speakers at the 2011 and 2012 conferences were US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Senator John Kerry and John McCain. The Forum is an exclusive invitation-only event that is not open to the general public, Brookings said. (QNA)