On Sunday, Tehran announced the appointment of a new ambassador to the Bashar al-Assad regime, according to Iranian media.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has endorsed his foreign ministry’s proposal to appoint Mehdi Subhani as Iran’s new ambassador to Damascus, the FarsNews Agency reported.
“Subhani has held several positions, including Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Office of Strategic Planning and Control,” the agency said.
Subhani has also served as the Iranian Consul in Karachi, Pakistan; Assistant Director of the West Asian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and Assistant Ambassador to Turkmenistan and Ukraine.
Subhani holds a Ph.D. in international relations from Tehran University.
He will succeed former ambassador Jawad Turkabadi — who began serving as Iranian ambassador to Damascus in 2017.
In early April, the Assad government’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates held a farewell ceremony for the former Iranian ambassador at the Dama Rose Hotel, in Damascus, to commemorate the end of his service.
Assad’s deputy foreign minister, Bashar al-Jaafari, granted the Iranian ambassador the “Order of Civil Merit of the Syrian Arab Republic, First Class.”
This comes months after Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, appointed Hamid Safar Herndi as his new envoy to Syria, succeeding the former envoy, Ayatollah Tabtabai.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
