Qatar, Turkey, N. Korea to attend Iran Rouhani inauguration

CAIRO – 1 August 2017: Qatar, Turkey, North Korea, Iraq and EU will take part in the swearing-in ceremony for Iran’s 7th President Hassan Rouhani. Qatar, which defied the Arab nations following Qatar’s Tamim’s statements on Doha’s good ties with Iran, “insists on moving against the Arabs towards Iran.”

A high-ranking delegation from Qatar shall attend the swearing-in ceremony for Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, Qatari Prime Minister Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani announced.

In a meeting with Chairman of the Iranian Parliament National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi in Doha on Sunday, the prime minister of Qatar said a top delegation from his country will take part in the Iranian president’s swearing-in ceremony.

He also noted that Qatar is grateful for Iran’s support at the time of Saudi sanctions against Doha, saying his country would never forget such Iranian help.

On behalf of the Iranian officials, Boroujerdi invited the prime minister and Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to visit Iran for President Rouhani’s swearing-in ceremony.

Turkey’s Minister of Economy Nihat Zeybekci will travel to Tehran to represent the Ankara government at the swearing-in ceremony for Iranian President Rouhani.

Zeybekci, who also heads a joint commission on Turkey-Iran trade cooperation, will join a number of other foreign guests in President Rouhani’s swearing-in ceremony, due to be held at the Iranian Parliament on August 5.

Iran’s Parliament Speaker Ali Larijan invited his Iraqi counterpart Salim al-Jabouri to attend Rouhani’s swearing-in ceremony

Kim Yong-nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly of North Korea, is flying to Iran via Russia to attend Rouhani’s inauguration.

He is attending the inauguration ceremony on the invitation of the Islamic Republic of Iran, according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini plans to travel to Tehran to take part in the inauguration ceremony of the Iranian president. Hassan Rouhani.

Mogherini will arrive in Tehran on August 5 in her capacity as the head of the Iran-P5+1 Joint Commission, which oversees the implementation of the landmark nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries in July 2015.

Rouhani, who was reelected as the 7th President of Iran in May, is to be officially inaugurated for another four years as the country’s chief executive.

Many senior Iranian and foreign dignitaries will attend the swearing-in ceremony for Rouhani at the parliament.

Before the ceremony, a decree by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei will be handed to the Iranian president to officially assign him his duties.

Rouhani, first elected Iran’s president in 2013, re-ran for office in the May 2017 election, garnering 57 percent of the popular votes to defeat his main rival Ebrahim Raeisi, the current custodian of the Holy Shrine of Imam Reza (PBUH).

After taking the oath of office, President Rouhani will have two weeks to submit his new cabinet to the parliament for a vote of confidence.

No sitting president in Iran has failed to win a second term since 1981.

Qatar’s relations with several Arab and Gulf States have been strained since May 24, when the Qatari state-run news agency reported Sheikh Tamim bin Hammad Al-Thani’s statements regarding Gulf foreign policy with Iran, as “unwise.”