Foreign Minister Dr. Dipu Moni on Tuesday attended an Iftar with dinner hosted by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to celebrate the Holy Month of Ramadan in the Benjamin Franklin Room at the US Department of State, Washington, DC.

Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Congressmen Keith Ellison, Howard Berman and Ileana Ros- Lehtinen from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ambassadors of the OIC countries, President Barak Obama's Special Envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke, National Security Advisor General James Jones and Clinton's special representative to the Muslim communities Farah Pandith also attended the Iftar party.

Besides, Newsweek Editor Fareed Zakaria and other high profile Washington-based journalists, Harvard University Professor Hassan Abbas and other academics, assistant secretaries of state Robert Blake, Jeff Feltman, Johnnie Carson and Kurt Campbell; and high officials from the State Department and other agencies of the US government were present on the occasion.

Welcoming the guests, Secretary Clinton said President Obama's administration recognises that the relationship between the United States and the Muslim communities has at times suffered from misunderstanding and misperception. "But we are committed to learning and listening; to creating bridges of understanding and respect; and building stronger bonds of cooperation," she said adding, "we believe that there is more that unites people of all faiths than divides us." Hillary Clinton noted that it was her husband's administration which held the first Iftar dinner in the White House in 1996.

-New Nation