Former Iranian deputy foreign minister Hussein Sheikholeslam has died after contracting the Covid-19 virus.

The 67-year old diplomat died early Friday morning in a hospital in Iran’s capital city Tehran, Tasnim news agency reported.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif described him in a press release as a friend and always fair-minded diplomat.

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Sheikholeslam was deputy foreign minister throughout the 1980s and then had roles as Iran’s ambassador to Syria, a member of parliament and was most recently a foreign policy advisor to the Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani.

In Iran more than 3,500 people have been infected with coronavirus and 107 have died.

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