On Sunday, May 8, 2022, the introductory meeting of the members of the Policymaking and Planning Council of ABNA News Agency was held in Tehran. In the meeting, which was chaired by Ayatollah Reza Ramazani, Secretary-General of the AhlulBayt (a.s.) World Assembly, the appointment letters of the members of the council were given to them by the Secretary-General. The members of the council are Messrs. Hosseini Aref, Khojasteh, Rashed, Zarean, Shariatmadar, Sharifi, Gholami, Farmanian and Kalantari. According to the decree of the Secretary-General, Dr. Abdolhossein Kalantari will chair the Policymaking and Planning Council of ABNA News Agency. He is the Deputy Minister of Culture and Social Affairs of the Ministry of Science, and the Advisor to the Secretary-General of the AhlulBayt (a.s.) World Assembly.
The Ahl al-Bayt World Assembly is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) that was established by a group of Shiite elites under the supervision of the great Islamic authority of the Shiites in 1990 to identify, organize, educate and support the followers of Ahl al-Bayt.