Aiming to enhance relations and academic collaboration between both universities and working for future experience and students mobility, the Faculty of Graduate Studies in AAUP organized an academic meeting between graduate students in the Conflict Resolution program in AAUP and BA, Masters and PhD Students from the program “Conflict Analyzing and Resolution” from George Mason University in Virginia- Washington. 

Dr. Dalal Iriqat- the VP for International Relations said that AAUP is planning to start an academic collaboration with George Mason University, especially that George Mason University is considered to be a leader in conflict analyzing and resolution. Dr. Iriqat explained that the strategy and policy of AAUP is to always seek to build international academic relations that include students and faculty mobility with international universities to enrich the Palestinian academic experience by learning from others experiences. 

Dr. Dalal Iriqat started the academic meeting by a lecture presenting the political repercussions and the current situations in the region, and she talked about the US role in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Then Dr. Iriqat asked students (Palestinians and Americans) to form groups where students had the chance to discuss issues about the third party role in negotiations and how to implement the theory by studying the US role in the negotiations.  

In this meeting, students hosted Dr. Sa’eb Iriqat- the Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization who talked about his own experiment in negotiations and the main elements and skills in negotiation. Dr. Sa’eb also focused on the behavior of negotiators and how to keep the best humanitarian behavior when dealing with others by mainly considering Harvard school and the Islamic school ways in negotiations

The training meeting between Conflict Resolution students in AAUP and George Mason students was aiming to allow experience exchange and enhance collaboration chances between both universities.

At the end of the meeting, students of both had the chance to ask questions and Dr. Sa’eb Iriqat answered their questions, and a discussion was raised about Dr. Sa’eb’s experiment and the challenges that faced this Palestinian negotiator.

Prof. Ali Zeidan Abu Zuhri- AAUP President and Dr. Sa’eb Iriqat- the Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization had a meeting after the training, and Prof. AbuZuhri welcomed his guest and gave an explanation about AAUP, the faculty of Graduate Studies and the recent bachelors, masters and PhD programs that the university had accreditation for.

During the meeting, Prof. AbuZuhri honored Dr. Sa’eb Iriqat and the lecturer in George Mason University Dr. Fakhira Haloon.