TEHRAN: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian presented his 19-member 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 cabinet members during an assembly session broadcast live on state television.

For the post of foreign minister, President 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 the US torpedoed three years later by unilaterally withdrawing from it.

President Pezeshkian has also nominated Farzaneh Sadegh, who would become only the second Iranian woman to hold a ministerial post since the Islamic revolution 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 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.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2024