President Pezeshkian presents cabinet lineup to parliament for approval

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has submitted the list of his new cabinet members to the Parliament, less than two weeks after he was sworn in before the country’s legislators.

Pezeshkian presented his cabinet’s lineup in a letter to Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf on Sunday, with the legislative body officially commencing the process of reviewing the proposed ministers’ qualifications.

The list of Pezeshkian’s proposed cabinet members is as follows:

• Alireza Kazemi for Ministry of Education
• Sattar Hashemi for Ministry of Communication and Information Technology
• Esmaeil Khatib for the Ministry of Intelligence
• Abdolnaser Hemmati for Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance
• Abbas Araghchi for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Mohammadreza Zafarghandi for Ministry of Health and Medical Education
• Ahmad Meydari for the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labour, and Social Welfare
• Gholamreza Nouri Ghezelcheh for Ministry of Agriculture Jihad
• Amin-Hossein Rahimi for Ministry of Justice
• Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh for the Ministry of Defence
• Farzaneh Sadegh for Ministry of Roads and Urban Development
• Mohammad Atabak for Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade
• Hossein Simaei Sarraf for Ministry of Science, Research and Technology
• Abbas Salehi for Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance
• Eskandar Momeni for Ministry of Interior
• Reza Salehi-Amiri for Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts
• Mohsen Paknejad for Ministry of Oil
• Abbas Aliabadi for the Ministry of Energy
• Ahmad Donyamali for Ministry of Sport and Youth

Among the proposed ministers is Abbas Araghchi for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who joined the Iranian Foreign Ministry in 1989 and served as chargé d'affaires of the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Organization of Islamic Conference in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in the early 1990s.

Araghchi also served as ambassador to Finland from 1999 to 2003, and Japan between 2007 and 2011.

The senior diplomat worked as the former political deputy at the Foreign Ministry from 2017 to 2021, also serving as Iran's chief nuclear negotiator in talks with the P5+1 in former President Hassan Rouhani's government.

Abdolnaser Hemmati for Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance is an academic, politician and economist who served as the Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) from 2018 to 2021.

Hemmati ran as a candidate in the 2021 Iranian presidential election, being the sole representative from the Moderate Front of Iranian politicians, and was placed third overall in the results.

The Iranian Parliament’s specialized commissions are scheduled to start deliberations on Pezeshkian's cabinet lineup as of Sunday afternoon and in two work shifts during the next four days.

The proposed ministers are also slated to be discussed in the Parliament’s plenary sessions as of August 17.

Pezeshkian was elected as the new Iranian president in a runoff election on July 5 after late president Ebrahim Raeisi lost his life in a tragic helicopter crash in May.

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