The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Iraq announced the signing of a protocol with the Lebanese authorities to organize the university degree equivalency file.
And the official spokesman for the ministry, Haider Al-Aboudi, stated in a statement, according to the Iraqi News Agency, that "Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Naim Al-Aboudi, made a phone call to the Lebanese Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, and discussed with him paths of cooperation and coordination regarding facilitating and organizing the procedures adopted in dealing with the file of Iraqi students studying in the Lebanese Republic.".
This comes against the background of the circulation of a controversial clip showing stampede and verbal altercations between Lebanese security personnel and Iraqi students in the Ministry of Education building in Beirut, a wave of anger across communication sites in both Lebanon and Iraq, and official reactions in the two countries.
The video shows a Lebanese security man yelling at a number of Iraqi students, who have come to review their papers at the ministry, waving a metal rod and threatening to beat them as he tries to organize the crowded queue.
The video clip provoked many Iraqis, who deplored the way they dealt with their countrymen, as well as Lebanese who described what happened as unacceptable.
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Both sides confirmed, according to the statement "Their keenness to consolidate the areas of scientific cooperation and enable Iraqi students to achieve the fundamental academic requirements in accordance with the established legal and academic contexts of official institutions.".
The statement continued "In the context of this cooperation, the ministerial committee dispatched by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research to Beirut held an official meeting with Prime Minister Najib Mikati, in the presence of officials of the Lebanese Ministry of Education. Lebanese complete the equation procedures".
