The Head of SAMT's Visit to Iraq, a Brief Report

According to SAMT's Department of Public Relations, during his trip to Iraq, Dr. Dawood Mahdavizadegan, the head of SAMT Organization, visited Iraq's Ministry of Science, two universities and a research center, and organized short meetings there.

• By their arrival in Baghdad, Dr. Mahdavizadegan and the accompanying delegation visited the martyrdom place of the top military commander, the honorable General Qasem Soleimani, and Engineer Abul Mahdi and recited Fatiha there.
• On the first day of this trip, Dr. Mahdavizadegan had a talk with Hujjatul Islam wal-Muslemin Gholamreza Abazari, Iran's cultural counselor in Iraq. In this meeting, accompanied by Iran's cultural counselors in Afghanistan and Venezuela, Hosseini and Dr. Faramarzi, the participants talked about the scientific and cultural capacities of Iraq, Afghanistan and Venezuela in research and scientific cooperation with SAMT. Moreover, Dr. Mahdavizadegan, while briefly introducing SAMT, talked about the objectives, programs, as well as the fields and capacities of this organization in the international arena. Based on the talks, it was decided that after the return of the SAMT delegation to Iran, a special meeting with Iran's cultural counselors in Venezuela and Afghanistan will be arranged.
• Then Dr. Mahdavizadegan along with Hujjatul Islam wal-Muslemin Abazari visited Iraqi Ministry of Science and met with Dr. Lebna Khamis Mahdi, the Director General of the Department of Scientific R&D of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Researches of the Republic of Iraq. In this visit, Dr. Mahdavizadegan, referring to the history of cooperation between SAMT and the Iraqi Ministry of Science, expressed hope that the cooperation within the framework of the existing memorandum will deepen and that the agreed measures will be performed faster than previous time.

While expressing her satisfaction with the presence of SAMT delegation, Dr. Lebna Khamis Mahdi gave a report on the measures taken and then announced that there is potential for the operationalization of unfinished measures as soon as possible. Introducing the upcoming scientific conference of the Iraqi Ministry of Science on the subject of "Islamic sciences", she expressed hope that SAMT will attend this scientific event with its relevant faculties. She also added that the Iraqi Ministry of Science wants to hold a second round of joint conference on the personality of Imam Hussein^(PBUH). In this meeting, Hujjatul Islam wal-Muslemin Abazari suggested that a delegation from the Iraqi Ministry of Science be invited to Iran, facilitated by SAMT, in order to strengthen the mutual relations between the two sides.

• Visiting Beytulhekma and meeting with Dr. Muzaffar Al-Rubiei, the Vice President of Communications and International affairs and Head of Communications of this institution was also the third program of Dr. Mahdavizadegan's trip. At the beginning of this meeting, Dr. Al-Rubiei introduced the history of Beytulhekma, and pointed out the capacities of this institute to cooperate with SAMT. Dr. Mahdavizadegan said that Beytulhekma, is like SAMT and both of them play a role in the content production system of Iran and Iraq. He expressed hope that with the cooperation of these two organizations, the necessary synergy will be achieved in order to strengthen Islamic civilization and publish its scientific achievements in these two countries.
• Meeting with Dawood Hasanpour, Iran's cultural attaché in Iraq's Sulaymaniyah, was the final program of the first day of the visit of the Head of SAMT to Baghdad. Dr. Mahdavizadegan, briefly introduced SAMT's Cultural Week Book Fair at the University of Kurdistan, and pointed out the organization's plans to be more active in Kurdistan Region by taking more measures and added that the establishment of Kurdish language department, translation of a number of SAMT's key resources into Kurdish based on regional needs, and benefiting from the capacity of Kurdistan's elite network in the SAMT's specialized departments are among these measures.
• On the second day of his visit to Baghdad, Dr. Mahdavizadegan had a talk with the president of Mostansariyeh University, Dr. Hamid Fazel Al-Tamimi. In this meeting, both sides got to know each other's scientific and research capacities. Dr. Mahdavizadegan said: signing a joint cooperation memorandum will help using scientific-researching capacity of the faculties of SAMT Institute for Research and Development in the Humanities to advance the academic goals of Mostansariyeh University. At the end of the meeting, both sides exchanged cultural gifts.
• The seventh program of the Head of SAMT in his trip to Baghdad was a talk with Hujjatul Islam wal-Muslemin Ali Khayyāt, the former cultural counselor of Iran in Syria and the current director of Khorasan Islamic seminaries. In this meeting, Hujjatul Islam Khayyāt, referring to the past cooperation between SAMT and Iran's cultural counselor in Syria, expressed hope that SAMT will use the scientific-researching capacity of the elites of Islamic seminaries, especially the Islamic seminary of Khorasan, in its scientific-researching activities.
• While expressing satisfaction with this meeting, Dr. Mahdavizadegan said: "One of the goals of SAMT is to benefit from the research achievements of Islamic seminary elites as well as to work in the field of Islamic heritage revival through the realization of joint cooperation." The history of cooperation between SAMT and the management of Islamic seminaries in Khorasan is remarkable so that Khorasan Islamic seminary administration has organized three Book Fairs for SAMT works so far.
• Dr. Mahdavizadegan's last program in his trip to Iraq was to visit the University of Babylon. In this meeting, which continued for more than 4:30 hours, Dr. Qahtan Hadi Hossein, the president of this university, while introducing its various departments, spoke about the potential fields of cooperation between the two sides. He added: "Publishing the eight-volume dictionary of Babylon Civilization is one of the valuable works of the University of Babylon. He suggested that the Persian version of this work can be published and presented by SAMT. While introducing SAMT, Dr. Mahdavizadegan spoke about the uniqueness of SAMT in the field of university textbooks in the humanities and expressed hope that following the signing of a joint cooperation memorandum, SAMT will evaluate the proposed book, and after its approval, the book will be translated and published. Then Dr. Mahdavizadegan visited different departments of the university, its library and document center, multimedia studio, the center of language teaching, and skills development section. Dr. Qahtan introduced Iran as a continent and said: Iranians were able to make achievements in large and small industries by relying on domestic capacities and resistance against the sanctions.