Pezeshkian to Be Inaugurated in Tehran as Foreign Dignitaries Arrive En Masse

By Staff, Agencies

High-ranking dignitaries from different countries have arrived in the Iranian capital Tehran to take part in President Masoud Pezeshkian’s inauguration ceremony.

The Iranian parliament’s ICANA news agency reported on Monday that officials from Cuba, Columbia, Mongolia, Malta, Niger, Libya, Gambia, Sudan, Myanmar, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and Madagascar have so far arrived in Tehran.

They are expected to attend a ceremony at the parliament on Tuesday afternoon, during which Pezeshkian, a 69-year-old heart surgeon, will officially swear in as Iran’s new president.

Pezeshkian will take the oath of office before Iranian lawmakers, as well as the Judiciary chief, and members of the Constitutional Council.

More than 70 foreign delegates will be present at the event, which will be broadcast live on state television and covered by over 600 reporters, photographers and cameramen from domestic and foreign media outlets.

Pezeshkian, Iran’s ninth president since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, formally began his four-year mandate on Sunday when Leader of the Islamic Revolution His Eminence Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei endorsed his victory in the second round of the presidential vote on July 5.

During the endorsement ceremony, Pezeshkian vowed to follow “the path of fairness and justice,” serve the people and address their problems, adding that these tasks would be “impossible without sticking to the law and unity.”

In a speech, Imam Khamenei praised Pezeshkian as a “competent president,” saying, “We all have to help him and his government do great jobs.”

In a decree, giving his official approval for Pezeshkian, the Leader said the new Iranian president was a “wise, honest, popular, and scholarly” person.

Pezeshkian garnered more than 16 million votes against ex-nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, who secured upwards of 13 million out of over 30 million votes cast, with the voter turnout standing at almost 50 percent.

The election was called early after Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi lost his life in a helicopter crash in May.