Qatar, Iraq interested in boosting health co-op with Iran

The meetings were held on the sidelines of the seventy-first session of the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO), according to Tehran Times.

The meeting was held in Doha, Qatar, from October 14 to 17 under the theme of “health beyond borders: action, access, equity,” the health ministry’s website reported.

During separate meetings, the officials explored avenues for expanding collaborations in the health sector.

Salih Al Marri, Assistant Minister for Health Affairs in Qatar, held a meeting with Alireza Raeisi, deputy health minister for health affairs, and Mohammad-Hossein Niknam, the deputy health minister for international affairs.

The Qatari official highlighted Qatar’s high capabilities in the field of health and expressed the country’s willingness to increase cooperation with Iran’s Health Ministry.

Raeisi, for his part, described the current relations between the two countries in the health sector as great and growing.

Underscoring that the two countries possess good capacities in health infrastructure, disease control, digital health systems, and other areas, he said that enhancing the cooperation will boost the capacities.

The official proposed improving ties in communicable disease management through early detection and sharing expertise. 

According to Niknam, two memorandums of understanding are being signed with Qatar, and the two countries are establishing related working groups.

Also, Riyadh Abdul Amir, Iraqi director of the Public Health Department, announced Iraq’s interest in expanding cooperation in different fields of health by creating a working group to follow up on required issues.

The two officials stressed the need for boosting cooperation in the fields of communicable and non-communicable diseases. 

Raeisi, for his part, highlighted developing joint activities on digitization of the health system, international health regulations, and rapid exchange of information to control diseases.

The coronavirus pandemic showed that Western countries and the U.S. did not help other nations during the crisis, so it is essential for Iran and Iraq as well as other neighboring countries to have fruitful cooperation and investment in the field of health to prevent confronting severe health challenges during the crisis, the official noted.

MNA