Iran’s parliament has approved the new cabinet of President Masoud Pezeshkian, with representatives approving all 19 candidates, parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Wednesday.
For the second time in the history of the Islamic Republic, a woman has been appointed: Farzaneh Sadegh will head the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development
The new foreign minister is Abbas Araghchi, a veteran diplomat and former chief negotiator of the Vienna nuclear deal.
Esmaeil Khatib, who is subject to US sanctions, will retain the post of information minister and head of intelligence, a position he held under the presidency of the late Ebrahim Raisi.
Eskandar Momeni, an officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and former deputy head of the General Prosecution Service, will take over as interior minister.
Amin-Hossein Rahimi will remain as justice minister.
Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Abbas Salehi returns to the post he held from 2017 to 2021 under the presidency of Hassan Rohani.
The new Finance Minister Abdolnaser Hemmati is a former governor of the Central Bank of Iran and was a presidential candidate in 2021.
Pezeshkian faced criticism from his own supporters for his nominations. One of his closest allies, former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, resigned as vice president after just 11 days in protest at the conservative nature of the proposed cabinet.
During the election campaign, Pezeshkian promised to carry out domestic reforms and improve relations with the West, but parliament remains dominated by fundamentalists.
The Iranian president is not the head of state. The real power lies in the hands of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The IRGC has also become a major force in the country in recent decades, creating a parallel economic powerhouse.
