Delegations from 100 states to attend Rouhani’s inauguration: Iranian MP

An Iranian lawmaker says delegations from over 100 countries will be taking part in the inauguration ceremony of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, stressing that the turnout by foreign dignitaries at the event will set a record in the country.

Alireza Rahimi, a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of Iran’s Parliament (Majlis), said in a post on his Telegram channel on Monday that the presence of seven presidents and 18 parliament speakers at the swearing-in ceremony had been confirmed so far.

He said the upcoming inauguration ceremony would be unprecedented in Iran’s history in terms of the number and ranks of the foreign dignitaries taking part.

Rouhani, first elected Iran’s president in 2013, re-ran for office in the May 2017 election. He garnered 57 percent of the votes in the election, which saw a turnout of 73 percent. He is now to be officially inaugurated for another four years as the country’s chief executive at the Parliament on August 5.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Rahimi, the Iranian MP, said that the high level of participation in President Rouhani’s second inauguration would be sending “an important message” to the world, especially at a time when the United States has sought to provoke world opinion against Iran.

He said Russia, Britain, and China would be represented at the levels of vice president, deputy foreign minister, and deputy prime minister, respectively, while France and Germany would be participating at the assistant foreign minister level.

The secretary generals of the D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation, also known as Developing-8, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and the Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) will also attend the inauguration ceremony, Rahimi said.

The Iranian MP said the planned presence of the European Union (EU)’s top diplomat, High Representative Federica Mogherini, at the event showed the bloc’s resolve to preserve and strengthen its ties with Iran, including in the framework of a 2015 nuclear deal.

Iran and the P5+1 countries — namely the US, Russia, China, France, Britain, and Germany — inked the nuclear agreement, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in July 2015 and started its implementation in January 2016.

The US, under President Donald Trump, has taken a hostile stance toward the deal, to which Washington is a party. The EU, on the other hand, has stressed continued commitment to the agreement and has made strong gestures to indicate such commitment.

Special security measures

Earlier, Iran’s deputy interior minister for security, Hossein Zolfaghari, said all necessary precautions, including security measures, had been taken for the upcoming event.

He said the level of security at the Iranian Parliament had been raised from “sensitive” to “critical” for the day of the inauguration given the high number of participating delegations.

Saturday August 5 has been declared a holiday in the Iranian capital.