The deal, which was signed by MNA Managing Director Parviz Esmaeili and AVA Managing Director Seyyed Eissa Hosseini Mazari, includes an exchange of news, photos as well as training and technical cooperation.
Hosseini Mazari referred to the annual meeting of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) which was held in Tehran from November 13 to 17 by the MNA, and called it well-organized and fruitful.
We were looking forward to signing a cooperation contract with MNA on the sidelines of the meeting, and now we are delighted by the result.
Describing the Mehr News Agency as one of the outstanding agencies in the Islamic Republic, the AVA managing director said, “The MNA-AVA deal will serve both sides’ interests.”
Referring to the fact that the AVA is the only Shia news agency in Afghanistan, Hosseini Mazari said, the Afghan Voice Agency has regional bureaus inside Afghanistan including cities of Herat, Mazare-Sharif, Bamyan, Jalal Abad, Kandahar and outside Afghanistan, including one official bureau in the Iranian city of Mashhad, and correspondents in Tajikistan and Pakistani city of Peshawar.
Under the management of Hosseini Mazari, branches of AVA are actively working to provide the agency with world news and news about Afghanistan.
Parviz Esmaeili, who is also the managing director of the Tehran Times daily, for his part pointed to the strong relationships between Iran and the neighboring country of Afghanistan and said, “Media cooperation among the regional states, specially among the Islamic countries, can strengthen their cooperation in all other arenas.”
Esmaeili called the Iran-Afghanistan media ties, a great step forward in reflecting the causes of Afghan people.
He described AVA as a trusting news source in the region, and said that the MNA-AVA contract is of great significance to the Mehr News Agency.
The MNA-AVA deal is the fifth cooperation agreements the Iranian agency has concluded over the past week.
The Mehr News Agency also signed cooperation agreements with four Asian news agencies last week on the sidelines of the 31st Executive Board Meeting (EBM) and the 25th Editorial-Technical Experts Group (ETEG) Meeting of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA).
The contracts were signed by the MNA managing director and his four counterparts -- Chang-Hoe Kim, Ahmad Mukhlis Yoesoef, and Hassan Hasnul as well as Baasansuren Tugalkhun -- respectively from Korea’s Yonhap, Indonesia’s Antara, Malaysia’s Bernama, and Mongolia’s Montsame.
SN/SJ/SN
MNA
END
Your Comment