Iran's new president picks pragmatist as top diplomat in proposed cabinet
By Reuters
August 11, 2024
Item
1 of 2 Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, leaves a meeting
of the Joint Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action
(JCPOA), in Vienna, Austria, June 12, 2021. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner/File
photo
[1/2]Iran's
Deputy Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, leaves a meeting of the Joint
Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in Vienna,
Austria, June 12, 2021. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner/File photo Purchase Licensing Rights DUBAI,
Aug 11 (Reuters) - Iran's new president presented his cabinet to
parliament on Sunday for a vote of confidence, state media reported,
proposing seasoned pragmatic diplomat Abbas Araqchi as foreign minister
at a time of heightened regional tensions.
Following the death of hardline President Ebrahim Raisi in a
helicopter crash
in May, Pezeshkian won a snap election last month by promising to
improve ties with the world, promoting a pragmatic foreign policy, and
to ease social restrictions at home.
Pezeshkian's
proposed cabinet lineup requires lawmakers' approval and parliament
speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said that parliamentary commissions will
start reviewing his candidates on Monday.
Araqchi,
61, who was Iran's ambassador to several countries, including Japan,
played a key role in negotiating Tehran's 2015 nuclear agreement with
six world powers, which then-U.S. President Donald Trump exited in 2018
and re-imposed sanctions on Iran.
Araqchi
later led Iran's negotiators during multilateral efforts - ultimately
unsuccessful - to revive the pact via indirect diplomacy with Washington
before he was replaced by hardline Ali Bagheri Kani in 2021.
The
president's powers are limited in the Islamic Republic by those of the
Supreme Leader, who is commander-in-chief of the armed forces, appoints
the head of the judiciary and has the last say on major policies.
Tensions
between Iran and the West have increased over Tehran's fast-advancing
nuclear programme and its threats to "harshly punish" Israel over the
assassination of Haniyeh.
Tehran and Hamas accuse Israel of carrying it out, though it has not claimed or denied responsibility for the killing.
Separately,
Iran's president nominated Mohsen Paknezhad as oil minister, who has
served as deputy oil minister overseeing hydrocarbon resources between
2018 and 2021.
Pezeshkian
has also nominated Farzaneh Sadeq as the road and transportation
minister. If approved by the parliament, she would become only the
second woman cabinet minister in the Islamic Republic's history.
The first one was appointed in 2009 by hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who was president at the time.
Under the president's proposed lineup Raisi's Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib would keep his position in the new cabinet.