The UN deputy secretary-general arrived in Tehran on Tuesday to attend a ceremony to commemorate United Nations Day and hold meetings with Iranian officials.
Jan Eliasson was welcomed by Abbas Araqchi, deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, the Fars news agency reported.
During the three-day visit, he is scheduled to hold talks with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior advisor to the Leader, and Kamal Kharrazi, head of Foreign Relations Strategic Council.
The Swedish diplomat served as the country's minister of foreign affairs in 2006 and has been acting as the UN deputy secretary-general as of 2012.
From 1980 to 1986, Eliasson was part of the UN mission mediating in the Iran-Iraq War.
In a separate ceremony scheduled to be held on Wednesday at the foreign ministry's Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS), Eliasson will be honored for his services as the then UN secretary-general's special envoy on the1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
United Nations Day is devoted to making known to peoples of the world the aims and achievements of the United Nations Organization. United Nations Day is part of United Nations Week, which runs from 20 to 26 October.
