Pope to visit UAE on Sunday

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis said he was looking to write a new page in the history of relations between religions with his visit to the United Arab Emirates from Sunday. "I am happy ... to write on your dear land a new page in the relations between religions, confirming that we are brothers although different," he said in a video message to the Emirati people released on Thursday.

In the message, in Italian but also dubbed into Arabic, the pope thanked Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan for his invitation to participate in an interfaith meeting on "human fraternity" from February 3 to 5. He said the visit would give him the opportunity to again see "friend and dear brother" Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the head of Egypt’s top Muslim authority, whom he met on a visit in 2017.