Iran has nominated career diplomatic Gholamali Khoshroo as its U.N. envoy, according to state media. The appointment comes ten months after the United States rejected Iran’s first candidate, Hamid Aboutalebi, for his alleged involvement in the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and 444-day hostage crisis from 1979 to 1981. Aboutalebi, however, claimed that he only acted as a translator. Khoshroo reportedly accompanied Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where they met with Secretary of State John Kerry, and to Saudi Arabia this month.
Khoshroo is currently Iran’s ambassador to Switzerland. He previously served as a deputy foreign minister from 2002 to 2005 under reformist President Mohammad Khatami. He was also a special adviser to Khatami on his “Dialogue Among Civilizations” initiative. During his seven years as senior editor of the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Islam, Khoshroo wrote about issues such as Boko Haram's brutality and "profound ignorance of Islam." Born in 1955, Khoshroo was trained as a sociologist before entering the Foreign Ministry. He studied at Tehran University and at the New School for Social Research in New York City.
Khoshroo discusses the importance of dialogue in the World Public Forum video below, which is followed by his official curriculum vitae from Iran’s Foreign Ministry. An additional interview in English is at the bottom.
Gholamali Khoshroo
Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Swiss Confederation
Born January 16, 1955
Diplomat by vocation, Sociologist by education,
1981-1989 Dean of the School for International Relations (affiliated to Foreign Ministry),
1989-1995 Ambassador and Deputy of the Permanent Mission of I.R of Iran, U.N, New York
1995-1997 Dean of the School for International Relations,
1995-2014 Board member of the Encyclopedia of the World of Islam,
1997-1999 Deputy Foreign Minister for Research and Training,
1999-2002 Ambassador to Australia,
2002-2005 Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs,
2005- 2014 Assistant Secretary General of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly,
2007- 2014 Senior Editor of the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Islam ,
2010- 2014 Member of Policy Making Council of “Iran Diplomacy”.
In recent years, he has extensively worked on current developments of contemporary political Islam and its implication for western societies. He has also contributed to various forums and seminars on how to promote dialogue and moderation among nations and how to contain extremism and sectarian violence. As a sociologist he studied at Tehran University and New School for Social Research, New York, U.S.A. He has published several articles and book on political and cultural affairs.