: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lauds the Cyrus Cylinder as the embodiment of human values and a cultural heritage for all humanity. Speaking at a ceremony held on Sunday to unveil the Cyrus Cylinder in Tehran, Ahmadinejad said the artifact has been an invaluable yardstick to evaluate the performance of politicians and rulers throughout history. The Achaemenid relic, on loan from the British Museum, will be displayed at Iran’s National Museum for the first time in the past 40 years. The cylinder was escorted by a delegation headed by the British Museum keeper of the Middle East collections, John Curtis, to the exhibition site where it will be showcased for the next four months. One of the principles stipulated in the historical piece is that it repudiates war as a means to sustain one’s rule, the president said. The Cylinder reads that everyone is entitled to freedom of thought and choice and all individuals should pay respect to one another, he added
Photos by Mahdi Marizad, Saman Aghvami and Mohammad Shiri
