An Iraqi-Muslim academic today described a meeting of religious leaders from Israel, Iran and Iraq as “a really special event”.

The religious leaders flew to the UK in a groundbreaking bid to forge ties and resolve the ongoing crisis in the Middle East.

Parliamentarians joined the Jewish, Muslim and Christian representatives at the London event sponsored by Iraqi-Jewish businessman Naim Dangoor.

Iraqi-Muslim academic Nabil al-Haidari, who lives in London, supervised the summit.

Today he said: “It was amazing – a really special event”.

In a web post on an Arabic-English Fikra forum, he added: “This conference represents a historic step on the path to creating real peace between countries often considered to have some of the most strained relations, due to political and sectarian disputes.

“There was a frank and open discussion about these problems, particularly the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

"Numerous other crises were discussed as well, including the displacement of Christians and other religious communities, such as Jewish communities, from the Middle East.”