Dateline News
TEHRAN Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday attended the oath-taking ceremony of President-elect of Iran Dr Masoud Pezeshkian. On his arrival at Tehran airport, he was received by Director General (West Asia) of the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Seyed Rasoul Musavi and Ambassador of Pakistan to Iran Muhammad Mudassir Tipu. The visit attests to the commitment of the two countries to strengthen leadership-level engagement and bilateral cooperation. Iran’s president-elect, low-profile moderate Masoud Pezeshkian, carries the hopes of millions of Iranians seeking less restrictions on social freedoms and a more pragmatic foreign policy. Pezeshkian, who defeated hardline Saeed Jalili in second-round presidential vote, is someone world powers are likely to welcome, hoping he might pursue peaceful ways out of a tense standoff with Iran over its fast-advancing nuclear programme, analysts said.Pezeshkian managed to win with a constituency – whose core was believed to be the urban middle class and young – that had been widely disillusioned by years of security crackdowns that stifled any public dissent from Islamist orthodoxy.The 69-year-old cardiac surgeon has pledged to promote a pragmatic foreign policy, ease tensions over now-stalled negotiations with major powers to revive a 2015 nuclear pact and improve prospects for social liberalisation and political pluralism.
