Zarif Meets Prominent Baha’i on South Africa Trip
On the evening of October 23, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif attended a reception at the Pretoria Country Club organized by the Iranian embassy in South Africa. While there, Zarif met with Iraj Abedian, one of South Africa’s most prominent economists. Abedian is of Iranian descent — and he’s also a Baha’i, part of a community that Iran’s authorities have cruelly oppressed for generations.
This might have been the first time that the Islamic Republic’s highest diplomat has met with a prominent Baha’i figure, a man who has represented the faith at the highest national level in South Africa, serving as treasurer of the National Spiritual Assembly.