Last month, ICTP Director Miguel Virasoro, Seifallah Randjbar-Daemi and Massimo Altarelli travelled to Iran to discuss ways of expanding cooperation with Iranian scientists and scientific institutions. Their journeys, in part, were a follow-up to a 1998 memorandum of understanding signed between the ICTP and the Iranian Ministry of Science, Research and Technology. In addition to meetings with the Minister of Science, Research and Technology, discussions took place with researchers at the Institute for Physics and Mathematics (IPM) and Sharif University in Tehran. The Director was also invided to address a regular meeting of the National Research Council of Iran. The dialogue focused on the ICTP's involvement in the SESAME project (a proposal to relocate a German-based synchrotron facility to the Middle East) and support for strategies promoting greater scientific cooperation within the region.