Indonesian Service Unveiled During Session
Session Convened as "Message of 4 Decades of Islamic Revolution Public Diplomacy"

As reported by Qods News Agency (Qodsna) the opening ceremony was convened with the presence of Dr. Bahram Ghassemi Foreign Minister Spokesman, Dr. Zahra Mostafawi Secretary General of Society for the Defense of Palestinian People, Members of Iranian Parliament and diplomats from Southeast Asian countries.

The session started by a short speech from Mehdi Shakibayi the Directing Manager of Qods News Agency he briefly explained a short history of the news agency.

Shakibayi explained: “The Qods News Agency (Qodsna) is first specialized news agency in Islamic Republic of Iran and the second non-governmental news agency in Iran. It was launched in November 2001 on the birth anniversary of the noblest messenger of Allah, Prophet Muhammad (S.A.) however it was only in 2005 when it received an official operation certificate from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.

He added: “while we were starting the news agency in 2001 the 11th September terrorist attack show took place and the world was suddenly highly influenced by the incident the dominant regime of US used the show to reinforce Israel’s security for its survival was highly threatened in that era and we did our best to inform the public opinion in the world by launching our English service and offer feedbacks or Iran’s foreign policy over the regional activities of the United Stated after the 11th September terror attacks.”

He added: Indonesian language service is our 4th international service, the reason we chose these language is because after Arabic language Indonesian language is the 2nd Islamic language according to its vast population of speakers.

He continued: “Indonesia has almost 264 million people population which majority of them are Muslims and they have been announcing their sympathy with the oppressed Muslims of Palestinians over the last decades and we believe that it’s a suitable arena to broadcast our views over the freedom of Palestinian people.”

He briefly explained about recent issues which have affected the Indonesian support over the oppressed people of Palestine and said: “Indonesian nation has recently been effected by the incidents which happened in Myanmar for Rohingya Muslims and the incident has attracted lots of attention from Indonesian nation, there was a threat that the sympathy of this great nation of Indonesia will be taken their attention from Palestine to Myanmar, it was our mission to take quick action and launch a digital web based media outlet to broadcast the developments of Palestinian issue which is Islamic worlds high priority to keep Palestinian values alive to the public opinion located in southeast Asia.”

He continued: “We are glad and honored that we are following the path which was suggested by the late Imam Khomeini who raised the Palestinian issue as Islamic world’s top priority and introduced it to the world specially the Islamic world.”

At the end of his speech he insisted that our mission is to send our voice and support to Palestinians and also broadcast Palestinians voice all over the world to gain global support for the oppressed nation.

Following to the session Dr, Bahram Ghassemi Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesman went behind the tribune and addrressed the audience.

Qassemi: Launching the Malay sercice of Qods news agency is a step forward in the field of public diplomacy.

According to the report the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghassemi said: "First of all, I would like to congratulate this new campaign in the field of news and media parallel with the public diplomacy and the State Department for a sensitive area in the south-east. Asia is institutionalized, and I am also pleased to attend the opening ceremony.

He added: "In today's world, due to the rapid developments of data speeds, we are faced with a bunch of news from complicated situations around the world. Of course, with extensive communications and cyberspace, we can take advantage of this opportunity to deliver the message of revolution to the whole world.

Ghasemi added that Qods News Agency has taken a very important step to add an Indonesian language service to their media. Today, Malay is the second language of Islamic world and the language of 300 million Muslims who have previously been the target of vast colonialists and currently under the influence of Western media, which the Qods News Agency can save this extreme South East Asia through the transmission of the accurate news. This media is capable of delivering Islamic, Iranian and global message to the world and reflect Islam’s struggle against extremism.

"We are all pleased and delighted to see this happening, and we hope that we can achieve long-term goals in public diplomacy and media diplomacy with more cooperation and interactions between the Department of State and the Quds Agency," he added.