Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 18
By Umid Niayesh, Saeed Isayev - Trend:
The first meeting of the 9th Islamic Inter-Parliamentary Union (IIPU) opened in the capital city of Tehran, Iranian State IRINN TV reported on Feb. 18.
The Speaker of the Parliament of Sudan Fatih Aziz al-Din Mansour, the head of the previous 8th meeting of the IIPU, and Iranian parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani as the current head made a speech at the inauguration ceremony.
Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani also is scheduled to make a speech during the meeting.
Several parliamentary delegations from 47 Islamic states including 26 speakers are participating in the meeting.
Some Iranian senior officials including head of the Leader's Office, Gholam-Hossein Mohammadi Golpayegani, Chairman of the Expediency Council Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the Chairman of the Assembly of Experts of Iran, Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani, Secretary of the Guardian Council Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati and head of Iran's judiciary, Sadeq Amoli Larijani are among the attendees.
Meeting of the IIPU will continue till Feb. 19 in Tehran.
Earlier the executive committee of the IIPU started holding sessions on Feb. 14 in Tehran.
The executive committee arranged the agenda of the general conference, which is being held in the presence of parliament speakers of member states.
The 8th meeting of Islamic Inter-Parliamentary Union was held in Khartoum, capital of Sudan, on January 21-22, 2013. Senior officials of 48 member countries parliaments, including Iran's Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani attended the meeting.
The Islamic Inter-Parliamentary Union was established in 1999 based on an initiative by Iran. It seeks to strengthen parliamentary cooperation among Islamic countries in order to solve challenges facing the Islamic world.
Some 52 Islamic countries are now members of the union, and it has close relations with 22 international institutions as well.