Learn Farsi: وزیر خارجی از همتای خود استقبال کرد. - The foreign minister welcomed his counterpart.

The verb for "to welcome" is استقبال کردن (esteqbâl kardan). In Farsi, this verb specifically requires the preposition از (az, meaning "from"). Instead of welcoming someone directly like in English, you literally "make a welcoming from" them.

Could we use the formal pronoun آنان instead of خود here?

Grammatically you could, but it changes the meaning entirely! If you said از همتای آنان (az hamtâ-ye ânân), it would mean the minister welcomed their counterpart (referring to a group of people mentioned earlier). Because we want to show that he welcomed his own counterpart, we must use the reflexive pronoun خود (khod).

Why is there a ی added to the end of همتا (counterpart)?

The base word همتا (hamtâ) ends in a long "a" vowel. When we want to link it to the next word (خود) to show possession, we need the ezafe connector. Because you can't easily pronounce the short ezafe vowel directly after a long "a", Farsi adds a ی (ye) as a bridge, making it همتای خود (hamtâ-ye khod).

What is the literal breakdown of the word همتا?

همتا (hamtâ) translates to "counterpart" or "peer". It is built from the prefix هم (ham), which means "same" or "together" (just like in همکار for colleague), and تا (tâ), which is a counting word for items. A counterpart is essentially someone who is the equivalent "item" to you in another organization.