Zedillo part of delegation meeting with senior leadership in Iran

Yale’s Ernesto Zedillo is in Iran Jan. 27–29 for a series of private meetings with the Iranian leadership.

He is a member of a delegation of four — including Kofi Annan, Martti Ahtisaari, and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu — who are visiting Iran for three days to encourage and advance the new spirit of openness and dialogue between Iran and the international community, and to explore what could be done to enhance cooperation on regional issues. The four met on Jan. 27 with the minister of foreign affairs, Mohammad Javad Zarif, among others.

The delegates are members of The Elders, a group of 12 global leaders, brought together by Nelson Mandela, who use their collective influence and experience to promote peace, justice and human rights worldwide.

Zedillo is the Frederick Iseman ’74 Director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization (YCSG) and a professor in the field of international economics and politics and international and area studies. As director of the YCSG since 2002, he has focused the center’s work at Yale on global peace and security and nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, among other core topics. A Yale alumnus (Ph.D. 1974), he served as president of Mexico 1994–2000.

The three other members of the delegation, Kofi Annan, the former secretary general of the United Nations; Martti Ahtisaari, the former president of Finland; and Desmond Tutu, the archbishop emeritus of Cape Town, are all Nobel Peace Prize laureates.

In a statement to the press on Jan. 27, following meetings with former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Zarif, Kofi Annan noted: “All around the world today, people are looking for better governance, looking to have a say in how they are governed. Such strong and democratic, healthy societies are built on three pillars: First, peace and stability; second, development; and third, the rule of law and human rights….So we have a lot to do, individually and collectively, to make our world a more peaceful and better place, and try to end all the conflict around us.”

On Jan. 30 Zedillo will return to Yale, where he teaches an undergraduate seminar in the Department of Economics.