Offices, banks, and private companies have been closed, and armed officers have been seen in the squares since early morning. In a letter to the European representative, Narges Mohammadi recalled the repression of people on the streets and the silent death of coronavirus patients in their homes.
All offices, public institutions, banks, institutions and private companies have been closed during the inauguration ceremony to “facilitate traffic and smoothen traffic”. The roads leading to the parliament will also be closed from 13:00 onwards. A day coinciding with the issuance of the constitutional decree. Protests against the presence of European representatives at the ceremony continue.
According to Article 121 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic, the president must swear to use all his talents and abilities to fulfill the responsibilities he has assumed. The ceremony, held in the open court of the parliament, was accompanied by unprecedented security measures, including the closure of Tehran, the suspension of flights for several hours, and the blocking of streets leading to the ceremony.
The presence of the head of the judiciary and members of the Guardian Council is mandatory at the presidential inauguration. Ruhollah Motafker Azad, a member of the presidium of the parliament, announced that 115 high-ranking officials from 74 countries around the world will be present at the ceremony. Due to the Corona situation, they have designated seating for guests in several side halls, along with the public hall.
Foreign delegations have gradually arrived in Tehran since the evening of the day of ratification.
A Tehran resident tells DW: "Since early morning, while the streets are very deserted, armed police have been standing in the squares."
A day before the inauguration and the day after the ratification, Ebrahim Raisi held the first meeting of the government. A meeting with the presence of Rouhani's team and on the topic of providing basic goods and medicine. This is while there was no mention of the victims of Corona and the issue of the shortage of medicine in the debates or the ratification ceremony. He held a meeting with the heads of the Corona headquarters on the same day.
Raisi's meetings with foreign guests at the inauguration ceremony began on Wednesday. He met with the foreign ministers of Bosnia and Bolivia, the speaker of the Syrian parliament, and the special envoy of the Yemeni National Salvation Government.
Meanwhile, protests are mounting against the presence of European guests at the inauguration ceremony. At the invitation of the Association of Families of Flight 572 Tehran-Ukraine, a demonstration is being held in front of the Parliament in Toronto, Canada, under the slogan “Justice is not negotiable.” Referring to Ebrahim Raisi’s role in the executions, the association noted that he was a member of the Supreme National Security Council on the night of the missile attack on the passenger plane and is one of the defendants in the case of this tragedy.
Human rights activist Narges Mohammadi has also criticized Raisi's presence at the inauguration ceremony in a letter to Enrique Moura, the European Union's deputy foreign policy chief. Recalling the Islamic Republic's repressive approaches in November 2019 and the recent protests in Khuzestan, Ms. Mohammadi emphasized the neglect of mass vaccination of the people and wrote about the loss of lives: "An unprecedented, cruel and heartbreaking massacre is taking place in the homes of the people of my country. It is not bullets, it is not torture, it is not prison, but a silent death in the dark rooms and homes of Iranians full of terror."
Narges Mohammadi wrote to Enrique Moura: "Iran agrees to his trip but is unwilling to accept the European Union vaccines, 'because the first is for the survival of the government and the second is for the survival of the people.'"
Amnesty International has previously protested the presence of the European representative at Raisi's inauguration ceremony, stating that he should be subject to criminal investigation for his role in the crimes of the 1960s.
At Raisi's inauguration ceremony, the Leader of the Islamic Republic called him a "wise scholar" and a "popular figure." Raisi also expressed regret that he was unable to kiss his hand due to the coronavirus situation.
Source: DW
