My visit to Turkey to be an important one, says President of 66th Session of UN General Assembly

UNITED NATIONS (A.A) - February 21, 2012 - Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, president of the 66th Session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, said Tuesday that his upcoming visit to Turkey would be an important one for him. Al-Nasser will hold official talks in Ankara on February 23 and proceed to Istanbul where he will attend the "Istanbul Mediation Conference" on February 24 and 25. He will leave Turkey on February 26. Speaking to the AA, Al-Nasser said that he always enjoyed visiting Turkey either on private or official trips. I received an invitation from the Turkish government to visit Turkey. I will discuss UN-Turkey relations with Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Al-Nasser noted. Following my official talks in Ankara, I will proceed to Istanbul where I will attend a conference on mediation. This will be a good opportunity for me to discuss bilateral relations. We will surely discuss the issue of Syria on the UN's agenda and other issues that Turkish officials would like to discuss, Al-Nasser stressed. Touching on his priority at the UN, Al-Nasser said that he wanted to strengthen the role of the UN General Assembly to find a peaceful solution to disputes. I plan to establish a special mechanism which would help the General Assembly deal with crisis, Al-Nasser underlined. I attach high importance to mediation in the peaceful solution of problems and have appointed a Turkish diplomat with experience in mediation as an advisor, Al-Nasser said. I do appreciate Turkey's role in mediation in the past, Al-Nasser noted. I hope that the Istanbul conference would be very active and fruitful, Al-Nasser also said. Al-Nasser formerly served as Qatar's Permanent Representative at the United Nations. Al-Nasser represented Qatar while his country was a temporary member of the UN Security Council.