Iran-Norway Call For Cultural, Arts Co-op

Tehran, May 15, IRNA - Norwegian Ambassador to Tehran Jens Petter Kjemprud conferred on Tuesday with Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Hosseini on ways to develop cultural and arts cooperation. Hosseini highlighted Iranˈs achievements in the field of culture and arts and expressed the hope that the ground would be prepared for expansion of cultural cooperation between the two countries. He welcomed Norwayˈs resolve to broaden cultural cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran and voiced Iranˈs readiness to share experiences for setting up cultural exhibits and fairs. Iranian people have a rich culture and civilization and played significant role in global civilization, Hosseini said. He voiced Iranˈs readiness to initiate dialogue of religions, scientific and academic cooperation, translation of books in Norwegian language and organize Iranian arts exhibits in Norway. Highlighting Iranˈs significant achievements in cultural fields, Hosseini invited Norwegian cultural figures to visit Iran to help broaden cultural affinity through signing memorandum of understanding. Iran is the cradle of civilization, culture and arts and its people enjoy universal right of freedom of expression so that they criticize the government. Referring to various sets of economic sanctions as well as threats posed to Iran by the European and the US governments, Hosseini said fortunately, the Iranian nation have always backed their own government and have managed to turn the sanctions and threats into opportunities. The Norwegian ambassador, for his part called for expansion of cultural cooperation and exchange of artistic works and called for exploring untapped capacities for cooperation. ˈWe believe that expansion of cultural cooperation between Iran and Norway will lead to expansion of economic, political, academic and scientific cooperation,ˈ he said. The unfair economic sanctions imposed on Iran have roots in their negligence from existing realities in Iran, he said adding that independent states should adopt a realistic and fair approach toward Iran away from influence of global arrogance. The Norwegian people are very interested on Iranian culture and poetry, he said adding that translation of Hafez poetry has been printed for several times in Norway. He called for translation of more Iranian books. Lauding the Iranian cinema, he welcomed organizing Iranˈs film festival in Norway./end