TEHRAN The Head of the Italian Parliament's Culture Commission, Giovanni Castellani, met his Iranian counterpart, Ahmad Pournejati, here in Tehran on Saturday at Iran's Parliament.
Pournejati briefed his Italian counterpart about the activities of the Iranian Parliament's Culture Commission, including paving the way for women and young people's further involvement in civil, cultural and political affairs and the sensitive and infrastructure decision makings at nation level.
The Iranian Parliament member also referred to the upcoming Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations, reiterating, "the end for the era when only one or at most two countries' politicians could speak for the people of the world is near and the new era will be the age of multilateral dialogues, and a time for hearing the others' voices.
The head of the Italian Parliament's Culture Commission, too, referred to the Italian nation and government's will to broaden their ties in all fields with Iran, adding, "Boosting the cultural ties is the shortest path toward that goal, because once the cultural ties are established among nations, they usually get so strong that the changes in political administrations cannot affect them." Castellani referred to the Italian nations cultural priorities for working with Iran, including cooperation in scientific and cinematographic fields.
Also the visiting President of Italian Chamber of Deputies Luciano Violante said here yesterday that Iran should play a more effective role in the region and the world and to fulfil this role it should enjoy the backing of the world people's confidence, belief and faith.
Violante told the Culture and Islamic Guidance Minister Ataollah Mohajerani that settlement of the issue relating to crackdown on the press can present a more desirable image about Iran to the world people.
Violante said that Italian people are not well familiar with Iran and presence of Iranian theater and music groups in Italy has upgraded Iran's status among the Italians.
Mohajerani said for his part that Iran and Italy need a constant and well-planned cooperation in the fields of cinema, music, theater, literature and thought.
He said that since Iran's cinema owns a style that is coupled with spirituality and love in human beings, it would be natural to see that it is welcomed by the world people.
In a meeting with Violante, the Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi on Saturday deplored the indifference of the Western countries particularly the European Union and the United Nations toward the ruthless killing of Palestinians by the usurper regime of Israel, occupying the holy Qods.
Kharrazi said the United States have not allowed the European Union, Russia and the United Nations to take a part in the Middle East developments.
The Iranian foreign minister criticized the inaction on the part of the UN Security Council toward the Middle East crisis and asked, "Has not the security and peace in the region been exposed to anger? Doesn't the Security Council have any responsibility toward the crisis in Palestine?" Meanwhile, Violante delivered a lecture on Saturday to the students and researcher at the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences of Tehran University.
No country can keep itself away from the process of "globalization" and called on the Islamic Republic of Iran to take this process into account, he said in his lecture.
He added that there is a possible risk that if a country fails to join the process of globalization, it will be driven to the sidelines.
The Italian parliamentarian said the globalization will not have mercy on the poor. If a country is poor, it is required to make endeavors to join the process and gain strength, otherwise, it would be driven out of the international scene.
(IRNA)