It was supposed to be Masoud Pezeshkian’s moment of crowning glory. Instead, it will be remembered for a dramatic assassination that put Iran on a war footing.
It was July 30, and scores of foreign dignitaries had gathered in Iran’s parliament to attend the swearing-in of Pezeshkian, the Islamic republic’s first reformist president in two decades. The 69-year-old had recently won a snap election, marked by promises to resolve Tehran’s long-running nuclear stand-off with the US and European powers in the hope of securing sanctions relief.
“I will not rest until these unjust sanctions are lifted,” Pezeshkian told the audience, which included officials from the EU, China, Russia and Arab states. “We want to normalise our economic relations with the world.”