ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian named a Kurdish Sunni politician governor of the western province of Kurdistan on Wednesday. Arash Zerehtan, who represented Paveh city in the parliament from 2020 to 2024, was made governor of the Kurdish-majority province, state media reported, citing a government spokesperson. Zerehtan is the first Sunni to be made a governor since the earliest days of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, according to AFP. Iran is a predominantly Shiite country. His predecessor was a Shiite Kurd. The Kurdish politician was born in Kermanshah city in 1973, according to his profile on the Iranian parliament’s website. Pezeshkian, a reformist, was elected in July after president Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash. His parents are Azeri,but he can also speak Kurdish. He has criticised previous administrations for a lack of ethnic and religious minorities in top positions. The president visited the Kurdistan Region last week as part of his three-day trip to Iraq, vowing to bolster Erbil-Tehran ties.
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