DECR secretary for interreligious relations meets with deputy head of Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader
On 11 February 2020, a solemn reception was given at the residence of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Russian Federation on the occasion of the National Day of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Rev. Dimitry Safonov, secretary for interreligious relations of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations (DECR), attended the reception with the blessing of the DECR chairman, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk.
Rev. Safonov had a talk with Hojjat al-Islam Mohsen Qomi, deputy head of the Iranian Supreme Leader’s Office on international affairs. They were joined at the meeting by Hojjat al-Islam Akbari Jiddi, representative of the Supreme Leader of Iran to Russia. Discussed were issues of mutual interest and cooperation. Special attention was paid to the upcoming 25th anniversary of the Joint Russian-Iranian Commission for Orthodoxy-Islam dialogue. It was set up in 1997 and its 12th session is planned to be held in Russia this year.