Kurdistan Region President Attends Inauguration of Iran’s President

Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani arrived in Tehran on July 30 to participate in the inauguration of Masoud Pezeshkian as the new president of the Islamic Republic of

News

Wladimir van Wilgenburg

July 30, 2024

Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani arrived in Tehran on July 30 to participate in the inauguration of Masoud Pezeshkian as the new president of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The delegation led by the Kurdish president includes Vice President Jaafar Sheikh Mustafa, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Minister of Interior Reber Ahmad Khalid and Kurdistan Region Presidency Chief of Staff Fawzi Hariri.

#Kurdistan @IKRPresident Nechirvan Barzani arrived in #Tehran to participate in the inauguration of the new president of the Islamic Republic of #Iran pic.twitter.com/TE580OYLN8
— Kurdistan Region Presidency (@KurdistanRegion) July 30, 2024

They arrived in Tehran this afternoon at the official invitation of the Islamic Republic of Iran to attend the ceremony.

On July 6, KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani congratulated Pezeshkian on his election as Iran’s new president.

“Iran is an important neighbor to the Kurdistan Region and Iraq,” Prime Minister Barzani said in a post on X on July 6.

In a congratulatory letter to President Pezeshkian, Prime Minister Barzani highlighted the historical relationship between the Kurdistan Region and Iran, stated that “as the KRG, we are ready to cooperate and wish to have the best possible relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran based on mutual respect and bilateral friendship.”

Pezeshkian, a reformist of Azerbaijani and Kurdish descent born in the Kurdish-majority city of Mahabad, beat the hardliner Saeed Jalili on July 5 in Iran’s run-off presidential elections.

The vote was originally scheduled for 2025, but was held earlier after Iran’s former President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash on May 19.

A high-level delegation from the Kurdistan Region, including Kurdistan Region President and Prime Minister Barzani, attended Raisi’s funeral on May 21.

the President of the Kurdistan Region had also attended Raisi’s presidential inauguration in August 2021.