Dear Sir,

I am pleased to reply to your letter of 12 September 2002 addressed to the Director-General, expressing your wish to establish cooperative relations between the Syriac Universal Alliance and UNESCO.

 Due note has been taken of your interest in interacting and exchanging information with the Organization in your areas of concern. This is most welcome as the aims and activities of the Alliance are of direct relevance to UNESCO’s inter-religious dialogue programme. Indeed, we are aware of the Aramean people’s ancient and rich history and of your organisation’s cooperation with other confessional groups of the Middle East region in joint projects aimed at promoting better reciprocal knowledge and mutual respect between different traditions and cultures.

With this in view, we invite you to contact the Culture Sector (Ms. Rosa Guerreiro, Division Intercultural Dialogue, e-mail: r.guerreiro@unesco.org. Tel. No.: +33145684747, Fax No.: +33145685588), which has expressed an interest in developing substantive cooperation with the Syriac Universal Alliance as regards activities to inter-religious dialogue.

Kindly find enclosed for your information a copy of the Directives concerning UNESCO’s relation with non-governmental organisations, as well as a leaflet providing information on the various aspects of UNESCO’s cooperation with these organizations. You may also consult our websites at the following address “http://erc.unesco.org/ong” for further information.

We thank you for your interest in UNESCO’s activities and look forward to developing fruitful cooperative links with your organisation.

Mr. Gabriel Marawgeh

President

Syriac Universal Alliance

P.O.Box 354

S-151 24 Sodertalje

Sweden