Iran president presents cabinet to parliament for approval

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian presented his cabinet to parliament on Sunday, notably including a woman and a Western-friendly diplomat as the country’s foreign minister.

Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf announced the names of the 19-member cabinet presented by the president during an assembly session broadcast live on state television.

For the post of foreign minister, Pezeshkian has named Abbas Araghchi, a 61-year-old career diplomat who has led nuclear negotiations since 2013.

Known for his openness to the West, he played a pivotal role in the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers that was torpedoed three years later by the United States’ decision to withdraw from it.

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Pezeshkian has also nominated one woman, Farzaneh Sadegh, who would become only the second Iranian woman to hold a ministerial post since the Islamic republic was established in 1979.

The 48-year-old is set to head the ministry of roads and urban development.

The reformist president has named as his future interior minister General Eskandar Momeni, a 60-year-old police commander and former member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

General Aziz Nasirzadeh, a former commander of the Iranian Air Force and deputy chief of staff of the armed forces since 2021, is set to take the helm of the defence ministry.

The president has chosen as his future oil minister Mohsen Paknezhad, a 58-year-old executive director with a long career in the country’s energy industry.

Parliament is set to begin reviewing candidates on Monday and submit them to a vote by lawmakers starting Saturday.

In late July, Pezeshkian had announced that he would “consult and coordinate” with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in all matters of state, to present the final list of ministers.

In Iran, the vote of confidence is performed by each minister individually, rather than the government as a whole.

On Saturday, the president kept in his position the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, who has held the post since 2021.

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Eslami was placed on a sanctions list by the United States and the European Union in 2008, when he was deputy defence minister.

Pezeshkian, who took office in late July, had advocated during the election campaign to open Iran up to the world, vowing to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement and ease sanctions on the Islamic republic.

But the president has limited powers, and is tasked with implementing state policies outlined by Ayatollah Khamenei, 85, who has held the post since 1989.