WEB DESK
Iran’s Presidential candidate Eshaq Jahangiri has promised his country’s Sunni Muslims that he will defend their rights if he is
elected. Jahangiri made his promise during a conference about “Ahl Al-Sunnah in Tehran” organised by the Advocacy and Reform Group and Sunni MPs in the Iranian Parliament on Sunday.
Mr. Jahangiri is a reformist who joined the race in a politically strategic move to help Mr. Rouhani counter their conservative critics and defend the nuclear accord, which many Iranians regard as an exemplary achievement even if it has yet to yield major economic benefits. He is widely expected to drop out and endorse Mr. Rouhani.
“I met last week with Shaikh Abdolhamid Ismaeelzahi, Imam of the Sunnis in Iran, and some Sunni scholars,” explained Jahangiri, “and promised to defend the rights of Sunni citizens.” He added that the development movement in Iran started with the reformist Govt of former President Mohammad Khatami and continued with the current Govt of President Hassan Rouhani.
“Iran,” he claimed, “is an ethnically and religiously diverse society, where Shia, Sunnis, Turks and Kurds live and the state is not monopolised by one community.” According to Rouhani’s deputy, compared to past, Sunnis now have some advantages. “We have opened up the field of diplomacy and appointed a Sunni ambassador.
They must be present in all official positions.”Indicating that he had met with many Sunni representatives in Iran during his campaign, and listened to their problems and demands, Jahangiri assured them that the current Govt seeks to fulfil their constitutional rights.