TEHRAN -- A group of Iranian activists and officials joined a funeral procession also attended by ambassadors based here for former Palestinian ambassador to the Islamic Republic Salah al-Zawawi, who was laid to rest in Tehran Wednesday.
Zawawi, a seasoned Palestinian diplomat and an intrepid campaigner for Palestine’s liberation from the Zionist occupation, passed away in Tehran on Monday after a prolonged illness. He was aged 85.
In a communique, the Palestinian embassy in the Iranian capital said the former ambassador died a hospital “due to illness”.
Zawawi served as the Palestinian ambassador to Tehran for 42 years (1980-2022) and retired in February last year due to failing health. He was the second Palestinian envoy to Iran after the revolution, succeeding Hani al-Hassan.
One of the founder members of the Palestinian Fatah resistance movement, Zawawi was the longest-serving foreign diplomat in the Islamic Republic of Iran after the 1979 revolution, which earned him the title of Moghaddam al-Sofara, meaning the senior-most foreign diplomat.
Before Iran, he also served as the Palestinian ambassador to Algiers, Brazil and Kenya.
His daughter, Salam al-Zawawi replaced him as the new Palestinian ambassador to Iran in February last year, submitting her credentials to President Ebrahim Raisi nearly a month after her formal appointment.
Zawawi, who commanded great respect from both Iranian officials and foreign diplomats in Iran, was accorded a fitting farewell by Iran’s foreign ministry after his superannuation on February 28 last year.
Speaking at the event, in the presence of Foreign Minister Hussein Amir-Abdollahian, the veteran diplomat said the goal was clear: establishing a Palestinian state from the river to the sea and accepting nothing less than that.