‏All of us, no matter what our nationality is or what country we are from, are citizens of a borderless utopia call “ART” which exists in a world called “CULTURE”. No superpower can prohibit us from being members of our ART nation. In our collective fantasy world, whether we are Asian, European, American or African, we all have a unique gene for understanding culture, an influential talent to make the people understand,as well as abilities for analyzing current trends and cause changes.

‏We all create narratives and images with our works of art, using our individual taste and styles and cultural characteristics (whether with or without faith) for peace over war, knowledge over ignorance, good over evil, and always for our salvation and resurrection. Our societies of artists strive to improve our nations with our collective works, despite being much smaller than the countries in which we live.

‏Even though the powers and politics that “be” have created gaps to keeps us separate, we have become stronger and bolder and determined and influential in many ways in order to transfer our humanity and collective messages to the world.

‏At the present, every one of us regardless of geographic or political situations,have come face to face with a common enemy. We need our message to be passed on as hastily as possible. We are all equally vulnerable to this microscopic adversary. The salvation of one, depends on the salvation of all.

‏Corona is not just a virus, it is a simple and historic question that is waiting for complex answers from the people and governments of the world. Can Iran’s answer to this question match the other countries, while its breaths are limited by global sanctions?

‏Is it not rational that the response of artists from around the world to Corona will be different and more effective than those of world politicians?

‏This crisis will pass, with small or catastrophic losses, but the collection of tales will also remain. The stories of exhausted nurses dancing in contaminated hospital hallways to raise the moral of patients, as they hide their worries about the lack of medicines and basic hospital necessities; Stories of physicians who haven’t been home in weeks and are forced to work without masks, gloves or gowns as they search for corona victims in the hallways of hospitals.

‏These will all remain in the micro-historical memories of our time, and will be heard by all, sooner or later, either from us or from you all.

‏We hope it is not too late for influential and unified artists of the world to tell these stories of the injustices toward the Iranian people, so the powerful politicians of the world may make the right choices.

‏The people of Iran are facing a crisis today, the Corona crisis you are aware of, as well as the “Crisis of Unjustly Imposed Sanctions” you might not be aware.

‏For the artists of Iran, it is important for you all to know that now, in this time of our large numbers of infected (including the elderly who are waiting their turn) are facing shortages of medical supplies…

‏We want to know… What do you think? What do you say? and what will you do?

List of signatories (so far):

1. Rakhshan Banietemad, 2. Fereshteh Taerpour, 3. Marziye Brumand, 4. ‎Niki Karimi, 5. Mohammad Beheshti, 6. ‎Homayoun Asadian, 7. Masoud Kimiyayee, 8. Alireza Shojanouri, 9. Vahid Jalilvand, 10. ‎Mohammad Mehdi Asgarpour, 11. Parviz Parastoyee, 12. ‎Reza Kianian, 13. ‎Shahab Hosseini, 14. ‎Navid Mohammadzadeh, 15. Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, 16. Sattar Oraki, 17. ‎Negar Azarbayjani, 18. ‎Anahid Abad, 19. ‎Ali Ashtiani pour, 20. ‎Habib Ahmadzadeh, 21. ‎Mostafa Ahmadi, 22. Bahman Ardalan, 23. ‎Habib Esmaili, 24. ‎Javad Afshar, 25. ‎Mahnaz Afsali, 26. ‎Kamand Amir Soleimani, 27. ‎Mazda Ansari, 28. Sara Gharecheh Daghi, 29. Saeed Armand, 30. ‎Mojtaba Faravardeh, 31. ‎Ebrahim Irajzad, 32. ‎Behdad Babaii, 33. Bahram Badakhshani, 34. ‎Ali Boustan, 35. Behnam Behzadi, 36. ‎Nazanin Bayati, 37. Hossein Pakdel, 38. ‎Pantea Panahiha, 39. Kiumars Pourahmad, 40. ‎Hassan Pourshirazi, 41. Tahmoures Pournazeri, 42. Sohrab Pournazeri, 43. ‎Keykhosro Pournazari, 44. Daryoush Pirniakan, 45. ‎Mohammad Pirhadi, 46. ‎Parviz Tanavoli, 47. Iraj Taghipour, 48. ‎Kourosh Tahami, 49. ‎Ali Jalilvand, 50. ‎Rouholla Hejazi, 51. Hadi Hejazifar, 52. Hassan Hassandoust, 53. ‎Ebrahim Haghighi, 54. ‎Mohammad Hossein Haghighi, 55. ‎Hooman Khalatbari, 56. ‎Mohammad Reza Delpak, 57. ‎Bahram Radan, 58. ‎Shadmehr Rastin, 59. ‎Habib Rezaei, 60. Christoph Rezayee, 61. ‎Homayoun Shajarian, 62. ‎Abdolvahab Shahidi, 63. ‎Masoud Shoari, 64. ‎Ghazal Shakeri, 65. ‎Mohsen Shahebrahimi, 66. ‎Amir Shahb Razavian, 67. ‎Alireza Raisian, 68. Atefe Razavi, 69. ‎Hassan Riahi, 70. ‎Leyla Zare, 71. ‎Alireza Zarindast, 72. ‎Kourosh Soleymani, 73. ‎Saed Soheili, 74. ‎Hooman Seyedi, 75. Davoud Amiri, 76. ‎Hamidreza Nourbakhsh, 77. Hooshang Kamkar, 78. Ardeshir Kamkar, 79. ‎Abolhassan Davoudi, 80. Abdoljabar Kakaei, 81. Reza Yazdani, 82. Davoud Ganjei, 83. Karen Homayounfar, 84. Elham Paveh Nejad, 85. Shayesteh Irani, 86. ‎Majid Modaresi, 87. ‎Ali Nik Raftar, 88. Majid Molaei, 89. ‎Mehrdad Nosrati, 90. Rasool Sadr Ameli, 91. Mehdi Shirzad, 92. Shabnam Moghadami, 93. ‎Jalil Saman, 94. Ahad Sadeghi, 95. ‎Tannaz Tabatabaei, 96. Ahmad Arabani, 97. ‎Arya Azimi Nejad, 98. ‎Alireza Alavian, 99. ‌‎Hossein Alizadeh, 100. Behrouz Gharibpour, 101. Hooshang Golmakani, 102. ‎Mohammad Hadi Karimi, 103. ‎Farzaneh Kaboli, 104. Hadi Marzban, 105. ‎Mostafa Kiaei, 106. ‎Milad Kiaei, 107. ‎Gholamreza Mousavi, 108. Maziar Miri, 109. ‎Ali Shakeri Shemirani, 110. Afshin Hashemi, 111. ‎Hassan Mostafavi, 112. Soheyla Golestani, 113. ‎Majid Motalebi, 114. ‎Hossein Mahkam, 115. ‎Meysam Molaei, 116. ‎Bijan Mirbagheri, 117. ‎Shahin Najafzadeh, 118. Amir Reza Motamedi, 119. ‎Javad Norouzbeigi, 120. ‎Mohammadreza Honarmand, 121. ‎Farhad Tohidi, 122. ‎Mojtaba Raei, 123. ‎Abbas Yari, 124. Hossein Yari, 125. ‎Mohammad Ali Hossein Nejad, 126. ‎Mohammadreza Gohari, 127. ‎Milad Key Maram, 128. ‎Barzu Arjmand, 129. ‎Hatef Alimoradi, 130. ‎Akbar Azad, 131. Ali Azad, 132. Mohammad Afarideh, 133. Saeed Aghakhani, 134. ‎Hassan Aghakarimi, 135. Nima Javidi, 136. Mohammad Mehdi Dadgoo, 137. Alireza Khamse, 138. Amir Asna Ashari, 139. Mohammad Ahmadi, 140. Puria Akhvas, 141. Pirouz Arjmand, 142. Alireza Es’haghi, 143. ‎Negar Eskandarfar, 144. Marjan Ashrafizadeh, 145. ‎Babak Borzuyeh, 146. ‎Ehteram Broumand, 147. Masoud Behbahani Nia, 148. Hossein Behrouzi nia, 149. Behzad Behzadpour, 150. ‎Mohammad Motevasselani, 151. ‎Majid Salehi, 152. Bayram Fazli, 153. ‎Mehdi Saadi, 154. ‎Asghar Pourhajerian, 155. Kiarash poozeshi, 156. Mehdi Jafari, 157. ‎Ali Jafari Pouian, 158. ‎Ardavan Jafarian, 159. ‎Hamed Javad Zadeh, 160. ‎Farshad Hesami, 161. ‎Siavash Haghighi, 162. ‎Akbar Khamin, 163. ‎Mohammad Khazaei, 164. ‎Javad Hashemi, 165. ‎Alireza Davood nejad, 166. Ali Rahbari, 167. Mohsen Damadi, 168. Leyla Rashidi, 169. Ali Jakan, 170. Reza Dadouei, 171. ‎Mohammad Dormanesh, 172. ‎Mehran Rassam, 173. ‎Kamran Rasoulzadeh, 174. Gholamreza Ramezani, 175. ‎Ali Zarnegar, 176. ‎Salar Zamanian, 177. ‎Amir Abbas Setayeshgar, 178. Farid Sajadi Hosseini, 179. ‎Homayoun Ghanizadeh, 180. Alireza Assar, 181. Kamran Sahar khiz, 182. ‎Pouya Saraei, 183. ‎Rahman Seyfi Azad, 184. Mohsen Sharifian, 185. ‎Jalil Shabani, 186. ‎Hamed Shakibania, 187. Sahar Sabagh Seresht, 188. ‎Behrouz Saffarian, 189. ‎Mahyar Toreihi, 190. ‎Aydin Zarif, 191. ‎Behzad Abdi, 192. ‎Mohammad Arab, 193. ‎Mojtaba Asgari, 194. ‎Baran Kousari, 195. Jahangir Kosari, 196. ‎Ghogha Bayat, 197. ‎Mehrdad Farid, 198. Jaber Ghasemali, 199. ‎Kamran Ghadakchian, 200. Ghasem Gholipour, 201. ‎Ehsan Karami, 202. Hossein Ghiasi, 203. Madya Farajnejad, 204. ‎Arash Farhangfar, 205. ‎Arash Ghanadi, 206. ‎Amir Ghanadi, 207. ‎Rahbar Ghanbari, 208. ‎Soroush Ghahremanlou, 209. ‎Mohammad Hossein Mahdavian, 210. Bardia Kiaras, 211. Saeed Sadi, 212. ‎Ali Hazrati, 213. ‎Ali Karim, 214. Ashkan Kamangari, 215. Hamid Motabasem, 216. Kourosh Matin, 217. Milad Mohammadi, 218. ‎Amir Mardaneh, 219. ‎Hamidreza Monnabati, 220. ‎Reza Mahdavi, 221. ‎Esmail Miyhandoust, 222. ‎Mahmoud Nazeri, 223. Omid Nemati, 224. ‎Amir Hossein Rostami, 225. ‎Gelareh Abbasi, 226. Mehran Falsafi, 227. ‎Sina Alam, 228. Sahab Alam, 229. Amin Mahdavi, 230. ‎Hassan Najafi, 231. ‎Mona Farjad, 232. ‎Masih Kazemi, 233. ‎Bahram Kazemi, 234. Buna Alkhas, 235. Mehran Farhadi, 236. ‎Ali Vazirian, 237. ‎Shadi Pour Mehdi, 238. ‎Abbas Sajadi, 239. ‎Mahtab Keramati, 240. ‎Farah Ossouli, 241. ‎Hamed Komeili, 242. ‎Majid Leylaji, 243. ‎Morteza Atash Zamzam, 244. ‎Jafar Sanei Moghadam, 245. ‎Jamshid Bayrami, 246. ‎Mohammad Sadegh Azin, 247. ‎Sirous Salimi, 248. ‎Panah Bar Khoda Rezaei, 249. ‎Mohammad Abbasi Fard, 250. ‎Rouhollah Baradari, 251. ‎Saeed Rafiei Monfared, 252. ‎Parizad Seyf, 253. ‎Jaber Ramezani, 254. Keyhan Kalhor, 255. ‎Babak Karimi, 256. ‎Reza Babak, 257. ‎Manoochehr Shahsavari, 258. ‎Roya Nonahali, 259. ‎Jhaleh Sameti, 260. ‎Goli Emami, 261. ‎Hamid Amjad, 262. ‎Behnaz Jafari, 263. ‎Sima Tirandaz, 264. ‎Hossein Maher, 265. ‎Masoud Delkhah, 266. ‎Mehdi Delkhasteh, 267. ‎Navid Mahmoudi, 268. ‎Jamshid Mahmoudi, 269. ‎Majid Majidi, 270. ‎Narges Aabyar, 271. Reza Attaran, 272. Parvaz Homay, 273. ‎Amin Tarokh, 274. ‎Setareh Eskandari, 275. ‎Khosro Dehghan, 276. ‎Ramin Sedighi, 277. ‎Saeed Aghighi, 278. ‎Amir Ali Danaei, 279. ‎Seyed Ali Ahmadi, 280. ‎Hossein Sharifi, 281. Foad Ghaffari, 282. ‎Ali Akbar Ghazinezam, 283. ‎Mohammad Abdollahi, 284. Tina Bakhshi, 285. Tina Jameh Garmi, 286. ‎Hamid Ehya, 287. ‎Sepideh Khosrojah, 288. Gholamreza Rezaei, 289. Mohannad Ali Najafi, 290. Touraj Mansouri, 291. Neda Mohseni, 292. Mahta Malek Zadeh, 293. Nahid Del Agah, 294. Kourosh Nouri, 295. Farian Sabahi, 296. Frouzandeh Arbabi, 297. Iraj Mohammadi, 298. Habibollah Bahmani, 299. Parisa Nazari, 300. Mojgan Sayadi, 301. Ali Shams, 302. Daryoush Farziani, 303. Golab Adineh And all artists who will sign this letter…

Link:

http://www.fcf.ir/news/public/2225

 Munich, Germany (GOV.KRD) – Prime Minister Masrour Barzani today met with Germany’s Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, Niels Annen, during the Munich Security Conference.

Discussing the latest developments in Iraq and the region, both sides agreed to further strengthen bilateral ties between the Kurdistan Region and Germany.

Prime Minister Barzani acknowledged Germany's role as part of the Global Coalition against ISIS, and stressed the importance of continued German support for the Peshmerga and Iraqi security forces, as they tackle the growing terrorist threat.

Minister Annen recognised the stability and prosperity in the Kurdistan Region, calling it a role model of governance in Iraq and the region.

https://gov.krd/english/government/the-prime-minister/activities/posts/2020/february/prime-minister-masrour-barzani-meets-germanys-minister-of-state/

 Munich, Germany (GOV.KRD) – Prime Minister Masrour Barzani met with the Foreign Minister of Iran, Mohammad Javad Zarif, at the Munich Security Conference today.

During the meeting, they discussed the latest developments in Iraq and the wider region. They agreed that they have an obligation of maintaining good neighbourly relations and mutual respect. They also have a common recognition of regional security challenges.

Prime Minister Barzani and Minister Zarif reiterated their support to de-escalate tensions in Iraq and further contribute towards stability in the region.

https://gov.krd/english/government/the-prime-minister/activities/posts/2020/february/prime-minister-masrour-barzani-meets-the-foreign-minister-of-iran-in-munich/

Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq (GOV.KRD) - Prime Minister Masrour Barzani has arrived today in Rome for a two-day visit to the Italian capital and Vatican City.

Prime Minister Barzani is leading a KRG delegation including Dana Abdulkareem Hamasalih, Minister of Housing and Reconstruction; Ano Jawhar Abdulmaseeh Abdoka, Minister of Transport and Communications; Pshtiwan Sadq Abdullah, Minister of Endowment & Religious Affairs; and Khalid Salam Saeed, Minister of State.

In Rome, Prime Minister Barzani will hold bilateral meetings with senior members of the Italian government, including Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, to discuss ongoing bilateral cooperation in the fight against global terrorism. They will also consider ways of encouraging Italian companies to seize the business opportunities available in Kurdistan by investing in the region.

At the Vatican, Prime Minister Barzani will meet His Holiness Pope Francis and Secretary of State Pietro Parolin to discuss the Kurdistan Region's commitment to countering religious persecution and promoting interreligious dialogue.

Ahead of his visit, Prime Minister Barzani said: "I am delighted to be meeting His Holiness the Pope to discuss the importance of religious coexistence, which can be a valuable antidote to extremism. I am proud that the KRG has made such a major contribution through our long-standing efforts to promote interreligious dialogue, while creating a haven of tolerance in the Kurdistan Region for people of all faiths."

The recent events in Kirkuk and Qaeim and at the US Embassy in Baghdad indicate there is a further exacerbation of the situation in Iraq, which has created a cycle of action and counteraction. Therefore, we reject all steps by other countries to settle scores on Iraqi soil and violate Iraqi sovereignty. As a result of these events, General Qasim Solaimani, the commander of the Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, Deputy Leader of the Popular Mobilization Force, and their comrades lost their lives while both of them played a prominent role in the fight against ISIS terrorists in the past few years.

Iraq must not become a battleground for other countries to settle their disputes. We urge them to solve their problems through dialogue and to respect Iraq and its sovereignty. The continuation of these complications, actions and reactions, will push Iraq and the region towards an abyss and an uncertain future; it will also lead to the resurgence and strengthening of extremist and terrorist groups, such as ISIS.

In these complex, sensitive and dangerous circumstances, we urge all concerned parties to exercise maximum self-restraint and prevent any further dangerous escalation.

Mansour Jahani - The "Climate of Wonder" photo exhibition by Mohammad Sayyad opened at the Nabashi Gallery in Tehran attended by the representative of the Iraqi Kurdistan Government in Iran Salam Aref Roshdi.

Mohammad Sayyad, a senior Iranian photographer, has been active in this field for nearly 50 years and is one of the leading news photographers in Iran.

The exhibition comprised 100 photos which depicts the horrific and devastating catastrophe of Halabja's chemical bombardment, the unwanted fleeing of the Iraqi Kurdish people.

Sayyad also has tried to illustrate the pains of the Kurdish nation at that critical juncture.

Representing the Iraqi Kurdistan government in Tehran also congratulated Sayyad and expressed hope that in the near future these photos would be published and distributed to everyone in Kurdistan and around the world.

ERBIL — Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani received on Monday the new Iranian Consul General to Erbil.

Barzani and Nasrollah Rashnoudi reviewed the bilateral ties during a meeting and discussed the possibilities to foster Erbil-Tehran relations, especially in the areas of trade and economy.

The new Iranian consul general congratulated PM Barzani on the formation of the new cabinet of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

In return, PM Barzani wished Rashnoudi success in his new position, according to the Kurdish readout of the meeting.

President Barham Salih greeted the Prime Minister of Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Masrour Barzani, and the accompanying delegation, at the Presidential Office in Baghdad on Tuesday, July 16, 2019.

The President highlighted the importance of coordinating shared visions and adopting the language of constructive dialogue to resolve all lingering issues between the Federal government and the KRG in accordance with the Constitution and national interest and to achieve justice. 
President Salih expressed confidence in achieving consensus among political parties to elevate the level of relations and overcome obstacles to delivering services to the Iraqi people.
For his part, Mr. Barzani expressed his government's desire to intensify dialogues and recourse to the Constitution thus to ensure the realization of common interests and the enhancement of brotherly relations. 
The meeting also discussed the political developments at the regional and international levels.

https://presidency.iq/EN/Details.aspx?id=1487