Dear IGS colleagues

In the following please find the email regarding the Egypt Visa received from the officials of the 17th ICSMGE, which is to be held in Egypt in October 2009. It is a very bad news which highlights the involvement of politics with professional and scientific activities. We, IGS, will contact with the president of ISSMGE and ask him to do his best for convincing Egyptians to issue visa for us.
Any further good or bad news will be forwarded to you all.

We remain hopeful and look forward to hearing good news.

Abbas Soroush
President
Iranian Geotechnical Society.



----- Forwarded message from icsmge2009@hamza.org -----
    Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:36:30 -0400
    From: icsmge2009@hamza.org
Reply-To: icsmge2009@hamza.org
Subject: No Visas to Visit Egypt
      To: fardin@sharif.ir


Dear Prof. Jafarzadeh,

I have meet several times in the last few weeks with senior officials
in the Egyptian ministries of Foreign Affairs, Interior, and others,
and I regret to inform you that visas will not be granted for our
Iranian colleagues to attend the 17th ICSMGE.  The reasons are
multiple and long-standing, unfortunately, and include a near 30-year
absence of either a political, scientific, or cultural relationship
between our two countries.

The Conference Organizing Committee is truly sorry about this
development, and equally sorry that the attendees of the 17th ICSMGE
will not have the opportunity to benefit from the experiences of our
colleagues in Iran.  Although it is a minimal offering, we will assure
that those Iranians who have expressed interest in the conference
receive a CD of the proceedings (at no cost), so although they cannot
be present, they can at least share in the thoughts and ideas
expressed by their colleagues in the field.

Kindly inform our 61 colleagues in Iran with whom you have been
coordinating. We will also send the CDs to you for distribution,
following their production near the time of the conference.

I am truly stressed to have had to write this message.

Sincerely,

Mamdouh Hamza
Chairman, 17th ICSMGE Organizing Committee