Dialogue between Iran-US Intellectuals

Greetings,

Since the state of the union speech by President Bush so many issues in terms of post-September 11th international policy and geo-political re-alignment emerged generally and in relation to three countries (Iraq, Iran, North Korea) in particular. Here, there is a respond by the former cultural minister of Iran who is now the head of Iran's International Centre for Dialogue among Civilizations worth reading:

Mohajerani: Dialogue between Iran-US intellectuals continues


  Tehran, March 14, IRNA -- Head of Iran's International Center        
for Dialogue Among Civilizations Ataollah Mohajerani said here        
 Wednesday that the issue of dialogue among Iran and US intellectuals 
is not anything new and such dialogue has been going on in the past   
and is to continue in future.                                         
    Speaking at a press conference, Mohajerani, in reply to a question
posed on as "What measures have been taken by the dialogue center in  
accordance with the Presidential emphasis for the participation of    
Iran in the coalition of peace against that of war?", he said that    
`peace and dialogue' makes the center's agenda and said, "Bringing up 
the concepts related to peace and calling upon the intellectuals and  
specialists are among the measures usually taken at the dialogue      
center."                                                              
    Referring to the first international conference on literature and 
dialogue held in Kish Island, he said that this was the first         
conference of its kind, so it might have been inefficient in some     
respects.                                                             
    He added, "One should not have high expectations on the first     
conference of its kind, even we ourselves didn't expect the  great    
global authors to attend the conference."                             
    He said that the conference was aimed at preparing the ground for 
the dialogue among the youth and authors of high expertise which was  
successful to some extent.                                            
    Referring to the similar conference to be held in the coming      
years, he said "Any criticism and proposals in this respect are       
 welcome and we hope that the conference will be more successfully    
held in coming years by the attendance of more professional authors." 
    In reply to the question as why the conference was not coordinated
with the Iranian Authors Association, he said that the association is 
not legally authorized. He added that during his term as culture      
minister he called upon them to take charge of the legal stages to    
register the association but they failed to do so. That's why the     
dialogue center could not officially enter into negotiation with them.
   The first international conference on literature and dialogue      
among civilizations was held jointly by the Center for Dialogue among 
Civilizations and the Kish Free Zone Organization at Kish Island on   
March 5-7.

Kind Regards

Kafkazli Seyed