Raisi’s Inauguration; Unprecedented Security Measures in Tehran

All offices, public institutions, banks, organizations and private companies have been closed for “facilitating traffic flow and easing congestion” during the inauguration ceremony. Routes leading to parliament will also be blocked from 1 p.m. onwards. A day coinciding with the day of the issuance of the Constitutional Decree. Protests continue over the presence of European representatives at the ceremony.

According to Article 121 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the president must take an oath to employ all his talents and competence in fulfilling the responsibilities he has undertaken. This ceremony in the open session of parliament has been accompanied by unprecedented security measures, the closure of Tehran, a suspension of flights for several hours, and the blocking of streets leading to the ceremony venue.

The presence of the head of the judiciary and members of the Guardian Council at the presidential inauguration session is mandatory. Rouhollah Motakker Azad, a member of parliament’s presidium, announced that 115 senior officials from 74 countries around the world will attend the ceremony. Due to corona conditions, simultaneously with the open session, seating has been arranged for guests in several adjacent halls.

Foreign delegations have gradually entered Tehran since the evening of the ratification day.

A Tehran resident told Deutsche Welle: “Since early morning, while the streets are very empty, armed police have been standing in the squares.”

One day before the inauguration and the day after ratification, Ibrahim Raisi held the first government cabinet meeting. A meeting attended by the Rouhani team’s members with the subject of securing essential goods and medicine. This is while in the debates or the ratification ceremony there was no mention of corona victims and the issue of medicine shortages. On the same day he held a meeting with the heads of corona task forces.

Raisi’s meetings with foreign guests of 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 Yemen national salvation government.

Protests are meanwhile escalating over the presence of European guests at the inauguration ceremony. At the invitation of the Tehran Ukraine Flight 752 Families Association, demonstrations are being held in Toronto, Canada, in front of parliament with the slogan “Justice is not negotiable.” This association, referring to Ibrahim Raisi’s role in executions, recalled that he was a member of the Supreme National Security Council on the night of the missile strike on the passenger airliner and is among the accused in this tragedy case.

Narges Mohammadi, a human rights activist, also criticized his attendance at Raisi’s inauguration in a letter to Enrique Mora, the European Union’s foreign policy official. Ms. Mohammadi, by recalling the repressive approaches of the Islamic Republic in November 2019 or recent protests in Khuzestan, emphasized the negligence in mass vaccination of people and wrote about the loss of citizens’ lives: “An unprecedented, cruel and heartbreaking massacre is taking place in the homes of my country’s people, not with bullets, not with torture, not with prison, but with silent death in dark rooms and frightened Iranian homes.”

Narges Mohammadi wrote to Enrique Mora: “Iran approves of his visit but is not willing to accept European Union vaccines ‘because the former is for the survival of the government and the latter is for the survival of the people.'”

Amnesty International also previously protested the presence of the European representative at Raisi’s inauguration ceremony, recalling that he should be subjected to criminal investigations due to his role in crimes during the 1980s.

At Raisi’s ratification ceremony, the leader of the Islamic Republic called him a “wise scholar” and “a popular figure.” Raisi also expressed regret that due to corona conditions, he could not have the opportunity to kiss his hand.