Director General Koichiro Matsuura, who praised the project, saying that "UNESCO offers its support to this initiative, in the hope that it will enhance in a durable manner educational means for peace and tolerance." David de Rothschild, President of the Shoah Memorial Foundation, outlined the broad themes of the project and its objectives. Other speakers included President Wade of Senegal, André Azoulay, Counselor to the King of Morocco, Ahmed Toufiq, Minister of Islamic Affairs, both representing King Mohammed VI, Qatar's Khalid bin Muhammad al-Atiyah, Minister for International Cooperation, representing Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar, Egypt's Farouk Hosny, Minister of Culture, representing President Hosni Mubarak, Tunisia's Prof. M'hamed Hassine Fantar representing President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, and Bahrain's Princess Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa, a former president of the United Nations General Assembly. Also present on behalf of their respective governments were Mustafa Ceric, the Grand Mufti of Bosnia, and Professor İlber Ortaylı, a distinguished Turkish historian and president of the Topkapı Museum in Istanbul. Other notables who came from far away to be present at the conference included Abdou Filali-Ansari representing Aga Khan IV, former Tunisian Prime Ministers Hédi Baccouche and Mohammed Mzali, Egypt's Aly El Samman, a veteran proponent of interfaith dialogue and advisor to the late President Anwar El Sadat, Ahmed Aboutaleb, the Mayor of Rotterdam, Gul Khan, the Lord Mayor of Nottingham, Iranian theologian Ayatollah Ahmad Iravani, Hélé Béji, president of the International College of Tunis, and Pakistani-born British Mufti Abduljalil Sajid. In a message to the conference read on his behalf by French Justice Minister Rachida Dati, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France said, "The strength of the Aladdin Project is to extend a hand to those who have been handicapped by prejudices, ignorance, or simply a lack of accessible information; to expose the lies and clear up the misunderstandings; to open up a new horizon for our common future. I share, unreservedly, this fundamental intuition of the Aladdin Project, for I am convinced that peace between peoples can only be based on mutual understanding and respect, and these are acquired in knowing and interacting with the other side." Former American President Bill Clinton praised Project Aladdin, saying that it "has the potential to play a vital role in countering denial with facts and putting a human face on something that otherwise might seem too terrible to believe." "Project Aladdin's focus on encouraging