Al-Azhar Grand Imam, Prof. Ahmad At-Tayyeb, affirmed that Al-Azhar and the Vatican met together for the sake of human fraternity and world peace, and that His Holiness Pope Francis is very loyal to his message, and he is a man of peace of the highest caliber. His Eminence said:

We agreed about the principles of goodness and promoting love among all, and our sincere efforts culminated in the cosigning of the Human Fraternity Document. This document appeared after we had lived a bitter reality due to differences, fanaticism and other negative phenomena that overthrew our societies, east and west. Promoters of hatred and dealers of violence exploited that situation to spread division and resentment among the followers of the heavenly messages. 

During his meeting with Ambassador Mahmoud Talaat before assuming his duty as the Egyptian Ambassador to the Vatican, Al-Azhar Grand Imam indicated that Counselor Mohamed Abdel Salam, his former Advisor and the Secretary-General of the Higher Committee for Human Fraternity, was the Egyptian architect of the draft document on human fraternity. His Eminence and Pope Francis cosigned the HFD in Abu Dhabi in February 2019.  Counselor Mohamed Abdel Salam made sincere efforts to coordinate and strengthen relations between Al-Azhar and the Vatican until it resulted in several projects, foremost of which is this historic document.

Ambassador Mahmoud Talaat, for his part, expressed his pleasure at meeting the Grand Imam. He said it was a very important and inspiring meeting for him in view of the remarkable development of the relations between Al-Azhar and the Vatican in the past years. He stressed that the efforts of Al-Azhar Grand Imam in promoting world peace and a culture of coexistence are appreciated and respected by all, representing a model in the history of interfaith dialogue, noting that he will do his utmost to strengthen and build on these historic efforts.