ISLAMABAD – Ambassador of Iran to Pakistan Mehdi Honardoost has called forexpansion of media cooperation between Iran and Pakistan, adding that itwould also help in strengthening bilateral ties.
The ambassador at a meeting with Managing Director of the Associated Pressof Pakistan (APP) Masood Malik here said that Western media is trying toportray a dark image of Islam but Iran and Pakistan being two importantMuslim states could join hands to counter anti-Islam western propaganda.
“We have to cooperate in the field of media. If we do it today it is betterthan tomorrow,” said the diplomat.
He said: ‘We need more media cooperation adding that Iranian cinema and TVchannels are producing quality programs according to the values of Islam.’The envoy said the high authorities and the leaders of Iran and Pakistanunderstand each other better than the past, adding that the interactionbetween the two sides is really good and better than the past but ‘we haveto do a lot more.’
He noted that some big powers are pursuing a bullying approach towardsThird World countries especially against Pakistan, against Iran,Afghanistan and some other countries.
The diplomat was of the view that as two important and big members of theIslamic family, Iran and Pakistan have the responsibility to counter thischallenge.
“We should try the best, better than the past. We cannot leave ourinterests to the mercy of West,” noted Mehdi Honardoost.
He said Iran and Pakistan as two brotherly countries should come togetherto solve the issues of the region and also in the world.
“We have lots of common concerns. You can look to Afghanistan both Iran andPakistan are exposed to the instability in Afghanistan. Nobody can ignorethe constructive role of Iran and Pakistan on Afghan issue,” he added.
He went on to say that relations between Iran and Pakistan are movingforward in all spheres. He said unfortunately the news coming in Pakistanabout Iran through Western media are biased.
“Everybody knows that due to strained relations between Iran and the USnobody is optimistic about the future of the relations between the twocountries so you cannot rely on Western media reports about Iran,” theambassador said.
He said Iran and Pakistan have lots of achievements as far as theirrelations are concerned but the people of the two countries are not awareabout these positive developments. “Previously our bilateral trade volumestood at 600 million dollars which is now standing at 1.3 billion dollarsdespite lack of banking transactions,” he said.
He said: ‘We should not give ground to our common enemies to laugh at us.Pakistan is not a foreign country for Iranian people, it lies in ourhearts.’
“When Supreme Leader talks about Pakistan he addresses Pakistan as dearPakistan which comes out of his heart,” added Mehdi Honardoost. He saidthat Iran and Pakistan have excellent potential of cooperation in manyareas.
Managing Director of the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) Masood Malikexpressing his views said: ‘We feel that Iran is our next home and it isalways close to our hearat and there are so many commonalities between thetwo countries.
He said ‘There is no doubt whenever there is any trouble in Pakistan,Iranian people and government, always extended great help to us to which weare very thankful.’
He viewed that there is a great need to evolve a system of news exchange ormedia communication among Muslim countries.
“We had a conference in Islamabad in which we also invited the Iranianfriends to enhance cooperation among the Muslim countries in media,” hesaid. The MD APP went on to say that non-Muslim media always distort thestories about the Islamic world and portray negative image of the Muslims.
“So there is a need to rectify this propaganda. Here the role of newsagencies is very important, if APP and IRNA make some arrangement of mutualcooperation it would be very helpful in this regards and we are alreadyworking on that,” said Masood Malik.
He said: ‘I would try my level best to finalize agreement between IRNA andAPP and we are also working to expand the operations of the APP and in allthose facilities IRNA will be our partner so we are ready to extend allkinds of cooperation to IRNA. IRNA is just like our right hand,” he said.
He further said that APP is going to launch a TV channel soon and Iranianembassy should provide Iranian documentaries and feature films dubbed inUrdu and the channel will air them in its test transmission.
“APP is fully ready to cooperate with Iranian news agencies especially IRNAand we would also like to have exchange of media delegations with Iran,” hesaid.
“We will also create a portal on our website with all news about Iran overthere so it would be good opening for the Iranian media to the people ofPakistan,” added Malik.