Tehran, March 13, IRNA -- The newly completed Islamic Consultative
Assembly building (Majlis) was inaugurated in a special ceremony here
on Tuesday.
The ceremony began at 08:56 hours local time (05:26 GMT) with the
playing of the national anthem and recitation of verses from the holy
Quran.
Civil and military officials, cultural and political figures as
well as present and ex-Majlis deputies of the country were among the
guests at the inaugural ceremony.
The inaugural session is the first session to be held by the
sixth Majlis in its new parliamentary building, located inside
Baharestan Complex in downtown Tehran.
Former Majlis Speaker Hojatoleslam Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, brains
of the new building, is the special guest in the inaugural.
The historical Baharestan Complex was the site of the Iranian
parliament since the 1906 Constitution up to the triumph of the
1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran.
Abandoned after the revolution, the seat of parliament, then
known as the National Consultative Assembly, was partly destroyed by
a fire eight years ago. Nateq Nouri, during his tenure as premier,
ordered major reconstruction work on the building.
The site of the former imperial assembly was the scene of some
of the most dramatic events in Iranian political history.
The site was bombarded by cannons of the Russian Army near the end
of Persia's Qajar Dynasty in the early 20th century.
In 1965 then Prime Minister Hassanali Mansour was gunned down by
Islamists while leaving the building complex, located in Baharestan
Square in central Tehran.
Henceforth, future Majlis sessions will be held in the new
building as announced.
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