United Nations Ambassador to innagurate new lecture series at Kennedy Center

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    By LOIS HASSELL

    The ambassador to the United Nations for the Hashamite Kingdom of Jordan will speak to political science and international relations students on Jordan’s role in the Middle Eastern Peace Process in the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies, 238 HRCB.

    Hasan Abu Nimah will be inaugurating a new lecture series of United Nations Ambassadors for the Kennedy Center.

    Nimah was selected to be the first speaker to begin the series based on his status as a senior ranking diplomat and the key role Jordan he has played in negotiating peace for the middle east as well as the strong ties between BYU and Jordan, said Erlend Peterson, dean of admissions and records and coordinator of the ambassadorial visits program.

    Nimah has served as ambassador to the United Nations since 1995 and now as a non-resident ambassador to Panama and Cuba.

    Nimah was present at the reception held February in New York at the United Nations Delegate Dining Room celebrating BYU’s English translation of two Islamic classics.

    Karl Snow, former director of the International Affairs office for the LDS church in New York, will be hosting Nimah. He said Nimah was also chosen to visit BYU because of his keen interest in the translation series.

    Peterson said the new program called the UN lectures will feature speakers. The Kennedy Center will continue to have the U.S. Ambassadorial lecture series.

    Peterson said the program will hopefully have one United Nations ambassador visiting each semester. More will follow.

    During his stay at BYU, Nimah will attend a luncheon with selected administrators, faculty and Jordanian students attending BYU.

    Prior to his appointment to the United Nations, Nimah was accredited as non-resident in Rome since March 1990. During that period, he was accredited as non-resident ambassador to Portugal and the Republic of San Marino, representative to the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization, the World Food Programme and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

    Since 1978, Nimah has been the ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium, the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

    He also held the posts of Permanent Representative to the Commission, the council of the EEC and the European Parliament, dean of the Arab Diplomatic Corps in Belguim and Luxembourg and the president of the Euro-Arab Club.

    Nimah served as counselor at the Jordan Embassy in London from 1973-1978 and joined the Jordanian Delegation to the U.N. General Assembly session from September-December 1977. He was also in the Foreign Ministry in 1972, First Secretary at the Embassy in Washington, D.C. from 1970-1972, Second Secretary at the Embassy in Bagdad from 1967-1970, Third Secretary at the Embassy in Kuwait from 1965-1967.

    Nimah was also a member of the Jordanian delegation to the Arab-Israeli Peace Talks held in Washington, D.C. in 1992, 1993 and 1994.

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