Hojjat-ul-Eslam Mohammad Mehdi Imanipour, head of the Islamic Culture and Communication Organization, made the comments on a visit to Serbia at the head of a delegation to participate in the third round of religious dialogue between Islam and Christianity of the Orthodox Church, on Tuesday, May 30, and in a meeting with Ms. Maja Gojkovic, Serbia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Culture and Information.

A number of other officials from Iran and the European country were also present at the meeting.

The Minister of Culture of Serbia attached great importance to the visit of the Iranian delegation for religious dialogue and announced the readiness of her ministry to cooperate in all areas with Iran.

Imanipour, for his part, said at the meeting, “One of the important responsibilities of the Islamic Culture and Communications Organization is to draw up agreements that become laws in the Iranian parliament and we implement programs with different countries within the framework of these agreements.”

“We have been present in Serbia for more than 30 years, and with the cooperation of the Ministry of Culture, good activities have been done throughout all these years, but there are still many areas to expand relations in order for the people of the two countries to get acquainted with each other more,” the Iranian cultural official said.

“The cultural exchange program with Serbia is being finalized to be signed by the two sides soon,” he further pointed out.

Imanipour went on to point to the negative image that Western mainstream media give of Iran as wrong and said that the development of tourism cooperation between the two countries can lead to greater information about and acquaintance with the realities in Iran.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to accept art groups, cinematic collaborations, joint film production, and active participation in book fairs, and the continuation of religious dialogues, and the holding of a cultural month or year programs,” he further declared.

The Iranian cultural official further suggested that due to the presence of Iranian artistic and historical works in various museums and cultural centers in Serbia, an exhibition of these works of art should be held in the National Museum in Belgrade, something that was approved of by Serbia’s minister of culture.

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