Tehran media report on key appointments by Pezeshkian

A major political news website in Iran reported on Saturday that the country's new president has already picked his foreign minister and head of the nuclear organization.

Nameh News reported that former Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who was the chief nuclear negotiator with the West in 2021 has been selected as the prospective foreign minister. However, no official announcement has yet been made.

The report also said that long-time diplomat and top-level official Ali-Akbar Salehi will head the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.

Pezeshkian will be officially inaugurated as the next president on Sunday, July 28, in a ceremony presided over by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Two days later, he will take the oath of office in the parliament. According to parliamentary law, the new president is required to present his agenda and introduce his cabinet ministers within two weeks of his inauguration.

No names or lists of ministers is considered final until the president officially submits his proposed appointees to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

During Pezeshkian's presidential campaign, initial speculations pointed towards former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as a key cabinet member. However, shortly after Pezeshkian's victory, Zarif announced that he would not be joining the administration.

Instead, he was appointed as the head of the Strategic Council for Transition, tasked with identifying and recommending ministerial candidates.

Asr-e Iran, a moderate-conservative website, on Thursday claimed that it has identified the three potential candidates for the foreign minister role selected by the committee, from whom Pezeshkian must choose.

All candidates belong to the reformist faction: former Deputy Foreign Ministers Abbas Araghchi and Seyyed Mohammad Sadr, who also served as Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs, and academic and former Ambassador to Russia, Mehdi Sanaei.

Earlier in July, the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news agency also identified Araghchi as the "most probable" candidate for the foreign ministry.

Tasnim also asserted that Pezeshkian's message to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, was authored by Araghchi.

Araghchi, served as deputy to Zarif during Hassan Rouhani's presidency, which concluded in mid-2021. He was Zarif's right-hand man during talks that led to the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal.

Another potential candidate named in the media is Mehdi Sanaei, who served as Iran's Ambassador to Russia, Senior Advisor to the Foreign Ministry, and a former Member of Parliament. The Iranian media highlight his fluency in English, Russian, and Arabic, recognizing him as both a practitioner and a professor in international relations.

During political roundtables and election debates, Sanaei served as one of Pezeshkian's political advisors, leading the media to believe that he was one of Pezeshkian's candidates for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In 2019, Sanaei found himself at the center of a significant controversy following the death of his daughter in Moscow, described as an apparent suicide. The Iranian embassy announced Arefe Sanaei's passing on social media but denied suicide as the cause, attributing her death to a "brain stroke."

Contradictorily, a local TV station reported that the ambassador's daughter fell from a ninth-floor window onto a Renault car, resulting in her death. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), a US-funded news organization, corroborated this account, confirming local media reports that Arefe Sanaei fell onto a car in the street.

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has consistently reiterated his priorities, which include supporting proxy groups in the region and steadfastly advancing the nuclear program. In his latest speech, he praised the parliamentary-approved "Strategic Action Plan to Lift Sanctions and Protect the Iranian Nation’s Interests," which mandates the government to increase uranium enrichment and reduce UN inspections According to Zarif, this law has been a significant obstacle to achieving meaningful progress in negotiations.