Zarif off to Samarkand, Uzbekistan

EghtesadOnline: Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif left Tehran for Samarkand this morning to attend funeral of Uzbekistan late President Isalm Karimov.

News ID: ۷۶۹۱۹۲

03 September 2016

The Uzbek government confirmed the death of President Islam Karimov on Friday, six days after he was taken to hospital with a suspected brain haemorrhage. Uzbekistan late president will be buried on Saturday in his home City Samarkand. He had been president of Uzbekistan for 25 years.

According to IRNA, president Hassan Rouhani in a message on Friday night extended his condolences on the sad occasion of the demise of Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov.

President Rouhani sympathized with the Uzbek people and President Karimov’s family.

President Karimov died at the age of 78 after suffering a stroke.

His rule saw the country emerge from the collapsing Soviet Union to become an independent nation.

Karimov was born in 1938 in Samarkand, one of Central Asia's oldest inhabited cities and a key stopping point along the Silk Road.

He studied engineering and economics at university.