Iran’s new President-elect Ebrahim Raisi has invited India for his swearing-in ceremony on August 5, sources have told The Indian Express.
Sources said that Raisi was “very warm†in his first meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, who made a stopover in Tehran on Wednesday en route to Russia and was one of the first foreign dignitaries to call on the president-elect. Jaishankar also handed over a personal message from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Raisi.
A decision will soon be taken about the participation — which government of India representative will go for the oath-taking ceremony in Tehran. “It will be an opportunity to build the ties, especially after the new regime comes into power,†a source said.
Incidentally, August 5 marks the second anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370 and the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories — something which Iran had protested.
On Wednesday, Jaishankar had also held “useful†discussions on regional and global issues with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. It is learnt that the evolving situation in Afghanistan figured prominently in the talks and that the two ministers deliberated on the situation in the Gulf region and the prospect of the Vienna talks on reviving the Iran nuclear deal and the Chabahar port project.
Iranian media reported that the two stressed the need to strengthen intra-Afghan dialogue that could result in a comprehensive political partnership in Afghanistan. Along with Russia, Iran has been playing a major role in the Afghan peace process that has witnessed a renewed momentum in the wake of the withdrawal of the US forces from Afghanistan by September 11.
Iran on Wednesday had hosted an intra-Afghan dialogue and the Afghan delegation at the talks was headed by Yunus Qanuni, the former foreign minister of Afghanistan. The Taliban delegation was headed by the deputy head of Taliban’s political office Shir Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, according to the IRNA news agency.
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