Iran Culture Week Starts In Beirut

Beirut, July 3, IRNA – Opening ceremony of Iran Culture Week was held here Monday night in presence of IRI Culture and Islamic Guidance Minister Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini at Beirut’s UNESCO Hall. According to an IRNA correspondent in Beirut, present at this ceremony there were also The Lebanese Culture Minister Gaby Layoun, the IRI Ambassador to Lebanon Ghazanfar Roknabadi, Lebanese Parliament Member Ali Bezi, and a number of renowned political, cultural and artistic personalities of the two countries. The Lebanese Culture minister reiterated in his brief lecture, “It is our pride to be the host for the culture week of one of the richest cultures of the world and also the culture minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Gaby Layoun pointed out that throughout history, Iran and Lebanon have both achieved high cultural statuses, added, “We, too, arranged with the Iranian culture minister to hold a Lebanon Culture Week in Iran.” He emphasized that cultural cooperation is the most important type of cooperation, adding, “It is very important for us to have cultural cooperation with a country that supported the Lebanese nation’s resistance against the Zionist regime.” After the Lebanese culture minister, the Iranian culture and Islamic guidance minister said in his address, “Beyond the cultures of the Arab and Iranian societies ever since the first century after Hegira, the idea of unity among the Ummah has always existed so that this way the identity of the mankind could be fixed.” Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini emphasize that we do not need to remind the sad a sorrowful cultural memories all the time, adding, “The researchers have done so in abundance, both discussing and researching various dimensions of such events.” He said that culture is the only means resorting to which it is possible to defeat the negative aspects of the relations among nations, arguing, “This way the light of truth would be shed over the hearts so that under that light the beauty and knowledge of mankind would reach the highest peaks of perfection.” The culture minister referred to the large number of Lebanese books which have been translated into the Persian language and the large number of Iranian student dissertations allocated to Lebanon issue, arguing, “This is proof for the broad presence of Iran in Lebanon and there is no wonder that we see that the Supreme Leader of the Revolution had during his early years of scientific and cultural life translated a book written by the renowned Lebanese writer Jebran Khalil Jebran.” He added, “Also the translation of many Persian language poems into Arabic by Lebanese masters is proof for the presence of such renowned Iranian poets as Sa’di, Hafez and Khayyam in Lebanon.” Then at the ceremony the Lebanese author Tariq al-Khaledi was applauded and received a present from Hosseini for writing a book titled Hafez from Present day Anthropology, and received a prize from the Iranian official for his work. Rouh Afza musical troupe from Iran played some pieces of traditional Iranian music at this point and at the end of the ceremony, the culture and Islamic guidance minister inaugurated an Arts Exhibition arranged on the occasion of the Iran Culture Week./end