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Nominees include a Western-friendly diplomat as foreign minister and a female urban development minister.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has nominated a moderate diplomat as foreign minister and a female official as urban development minister as he presented his new cabinet.
Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf announced on Sunday the names of the 19-member cabinet presented by the president during an assembly session broadcast live on state television.
The nominations appear in line with the hopes that the election of Pezeshkian last month, to replace the hardline Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May, could lead to a thaw in Iran’s relations with the West.
However, the parliament, which is dominated by hardliners, will begin a review of the nominees starting on Monday, and then vote whether or not to confirm the lineup.
For foreign minister, Pezeshkian picked Abbas Araghchi, a 61-year-old career diplomat. Araghchi, who has extolled open, yet critical, talks with the West, served as the chief negotiator in nuclear talks between Tehran and world powers from 2013 to 2021.
He also served as Iran’s ambassador to Japan and Finland, and as a deputy of then-Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who was instrumental in reaching the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Farzaneh Sadegh was nominated as roads and urban development minister. If confirmed, the 48-year-old would become only the second Iranian woman to hold a ministerial post since the Islamic Republic was established in 1979, after Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi became health minister in 2009.
However, many lawmakers voiced their opposition when her name was read out by the speaker during Sunday’s session.
On tenterhooks
The appointment of the new cabinet comes as the world awaits Iran’s next move in response to the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Iran has angrily blamed Israel for the killing and vowed harsh retaliation. Western leaders have pleaded for restraint, saying that military action by Iran would threaten to tip the war in Gaza into a full-blown regional conflict.
Pezeshkian came to power with promises to improve ties with the world and ease social restrictions at home. It is thought that he worries that a major military confrontation with Israel would jeopardise his priorities.
General Aziz Nasirzadeh, a former commander of the Iranian Air Force, has been put forward to take the helm at the defence ministry.
The president named General Eskandar Momeni, a 60-year-old police commander and relatively-moderate former member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as interior minister.
Mohsen Paknezhad, a 58-year-old executive director with a long career in the country’s energy industry has been tapped as oil minister.
In late July, Pezeshkian had announced that he would “consult and coordinate” with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in all matters of state, to present the final list of ministers.
Iranian Vice President Resigns, Signaling Deep Divisions as Cabinet Takes Shape
Mohammad Javad Zarif’s resignation shocked Iran’s political circles and came as President Masoud Pezeshkian announced that his cabinet would include several conservatives and only one woman.
President Masoud Pezeshkian, right, of Iran campaigning with Mohammad Javad Zarif in June. Mr. Zarif resigned from the government on Sunday.Credit...Arash Khamooshi for The New York TimesBy Farnaz Fassihi and Leily Nikounazar
The resignation on Sunday of Mohammad Javad Zarif, who had been appointed vice president for strategy and had led a search committee for cabinet nominations, shocked Iran’s political circles. He had been a prominent face of Mr. Pezeshkian’s campaign, traveling across the country and telling voters to give change a chance. Now, he was abandoning the government in a public display of deep divisions before it was even formed.
In a post on his Instagram account, Mr. Zarif said it had become clear to him that he could not bring about the kind of domestic change that people had expected.
“I am not satisfied with the outcome of my work, and I’m ashamed that I could not adequately achieve what I had promised about representation of women, youth and ethnicities and the expert opinion of the committees,” he said.
Mr. Zarif followed up on Monday with another post on to Instagram, saying that his resignation did not mean he regretted supporting Mr. Pezeshkian or that he had lost hope in the new government, but rather “it means that I doubt whether I can be effective as a vice president of strategy.”
More stunning was the timing of Mr. Zarif’s resignation. As Iran’s former foreign minister, its most seasoned foreign policy expert and the top negotiator in the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, he was bowing out as a possible regional war loomed.
Iran has been threatening to retaliate against Israel for the assassination of Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran about two weeks ago. Israel, which has not taken responsibility for the killing but had admitted being behind the assassination of a Hezbollah commander in Lebanon around the same time, has said that if Iran and Hezbollah launch large retaliatory attacks, it would strike back with force.
A truck bearing Ismail Haniyeh’s coffin traveling through the streets of Tehran this month.Credit...Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times“It’s like a bucket of cold water has been splashed on their heads; they had big expectations, but the result has been minimal,” the Iranian columnist Mohammad Javad Rouh wrote on the front page of the Ham Mihan newspaper on Monday about the disappointment of voters and the reformist political faction that had endorsed Mr. Pezeshkian as its candidate in the presidential race.
At the center of the controversy are two key cabinet nominees: the candidates for minister of the interior and intelligence. Mr. Pezeshkian named two conservatives with a long history of brutal crackdowns on protesters, women and dissidents even though he had pledged during debates and campaign rallies that he would reform such heavy-handed tactics.
Esmail Khatib, who was nominated as the intelligence minister, is a rollover from the previous conservative government who oversaw mass arrests and crackdowns during a women-led uprising in 2022 that followed the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s morality police.
The name of Eskandar Momeni, a senior commander of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, surfaced at the last minute on the list Saturday as the candidate for interior minister favored by the security apparatus and the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to two members of Mr. Pezeshkian’s strategic committee who asked not to be named because they did not want to speak publicly about sensitive issues for fear of reprisal.
Mr. Momeni has had leading roles in the security apparatus, including the police and anti-narcotics forces.
Eskandar Momeni’s name surfaces as a nominee for interior minister of Iran.Credit...Max Slovencik/EPA, via ShutterstockThe two people on the strategic team said that Mr. Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guards did not want to give up the conservatives’ hold on the interior and intelligence ministries, viewing them as essential for controlling foreign infiltration, namely from Israel, and domestic challenges to the rule of the Islamic Republic.
Mr. Pezeshkian has not publicly addressed the criticism surrounding the cabinet. He has said he wants a “unity government” to have less tension and more cooperation and will draw from experienced people in different political factions, including rival conservatives.
The 19 cabinet members nominated include one woman, Farzaneh Sadegh, as roads and housing minister. But the list notably lacked any minorities such as Sunni Muslims and any person from the younger demographics. The average age of the proposed cabinet is 60.
Parliament must approve all the cabinet members, and the dayslong process typically involves each minister addressing the chamber and two supporters and two opponents delivering speeches about them. The session is scheduled for Saturday.
Mohammad Reza Aref, the first vice president and a reformist politician, said that in choosing the cabinet, the priority had been to improve the economy and the livelihoods of people, according to Iranian state media. Mr. Aref dismissed the criticism, saying, “The strategy of choosing managers and ministers in this government is not to pay attention to political thinking.”
Analysts say that Mr. Pezeshkian was expected to make some concessions to appease Mr. Khamenei. The new president had said he would run the list by the ayatollah, who typically weighs in on key cabinet posts. Mr. Pezeshkian also negotiated with Parliament, which is dominated by conservatives, to make sure the list would not be rejected or held up.
Gholamhossein Karbaschi, the former mayor of Tehran and a reformist politician, said that conservative lawmakers had threatened Mr. Pezeshkian that they would withhold their approval if he nominated ministers they did not support.
“He is facing challenges from every side,” Mr. Karbaschi said in an interview with the Entekhab news site.
Still, analysts in Iran said that all the concessions so early on made Mr. Pezeshkian look weak.
“The cabinet that Pezeshkian has put together is inconsistent and incoherent,” Nasser Hadian, a political analyst in Tehran, said in a telephone interview. “Some are acceptable; some not. Some are not qualified for those positions at all. Many of the reformists expected a better cabinet, but the point is that they are not dealing with the restraints that the president is facing.”
Mr. Hadian said that despite all of the constraints the new president was under, Mr. Pezeshkian still represented an opportunity for change, albeit limited in shape and scope, and that many reformists still wanted to give him a chance despite their disappointment over the cabinet.
In other nominations, leadership of the foreign and economic ministries went to prominent reformists with an outlook that says Iran’s faltering economy cannot be improved without a change in foreign policy.
Abbas Araghchi, who was Mr. Zarif’s deputy, was nominated as foreign minister. He was a member of Iran’s nuclear negotiating team and is well known among Western diplomats.
Abdolnaser Hemmati, the former head of Iran’s Central Bank and a 2021 presidential candidate, was nominated as minister of economy.
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