President Pezeshkian Calls for Unity, Solidarity  

TEHRAN — Iran’s parliament on Wednesday approved all members of President Masoud Pezeshkian’s cabinet, the first time in over two decades a chief executive has been able to get all of his officials through the body.

The approval marks an early win for Pezeshkian, a longtime lawmaker who found himself catapulted into the presidency after a helicopter crash in May martyred his predecessor Ebrahim Raisi.

Getting his officials approved shows Pezeshkian picked a cross-factional cabinet reflecting his focus on consensus after days of debate, as opposed to going for controversial choices as well. 

Underlining that point, Pezeshkian immediately posted an image online with him standing next to Iran’s judiciary chief and the country’s parliament speaker, he once faced in the election.

“The road to our salvation is unity and solidarity,” Pezeshkian said in his speech to the 285 parliamentarians present to give their vote of confidence to the cabinet, which had been debated since Saturday.

Former Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif, who campaigned for Pezeshkian in his election, later resigned as a vice president for the new president over the cabinet selections.

He emphasized that all political factions in the country must “join hands” and “set aside past differences”, adding that the current situation is more challenging than Iran’s war with Iraq in the 1980s.

Pezeshkian’s inauguration was marked Israel’s assassination of Hamas political bureau chief Haniyeh in Tehran last month, that has reignited tensions in the region. 

Among those in Pezeshkian’s new cabinet is Abbas Araghchi, 61, a career diplomat who will be Iran’s new foreign minister.

Araghchi was a member of the Iranian negotiating team that reached a nuclear deal with world powers in 2015 that capped Tehran’s nuclear program in return for the removal of sanctions.

In 2018, then-President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the deal and imposed more sanctions on Iran. Pezeshkian said during his presidential campaign that he would try to revive the nuclear deal.

During deliberations with the parliament, Araghchi asserted that he holds the same worldview he held during his time serving with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and expressed support for a 2020 parliamentary bill encapsulating Iran’s non-concessionist nuclear stance.

In his last address to parliament on Sunday, Araghchi stressed that Tehran would continue its policy of good neighborliness and negotiations to remove sanctions.

“China, Russia, Africa, Latin America and East Asia are priority

 regions in our foreign policy,” Araghchi said at the time, adding that Europe could become a priority if it changed its “hostile behavior” and that relations with the U.S. would solely be informed by “conflict management”.
The candidate who received the most support from lawmakers was the country’s new defense minister, Aziz Nasirzadeh, who received 281 votes out of 288 present lawmakers. The chamber has 290 seats.
Nasirzadeh was chief of the Iranian air force from 2018 to 2021.
Health Minister Muhammad Reza Zafarghandi received the lowest number of votes with 163.
The only female minister proposed, Housing and Road Minister Farzaneh Sadegh, a 47-year-old architect, received 231 votes. She is the first female minister in Iran in more than a decade.
The parliament also approved Pezeshkian’s proposed Intelligence Minister Ismail Khatib, as well as Justice Minister Amin Hussein Rahimi, both of whom served under the late president. Pezeshkian also put Raisi’s minister of industries, Abbas Aliabadi, in the post of energy minister.
Mohsen Paknejad was approved as minister of oil. He served as deputy minister of oil for the supervision of hydrocarbon resources from 2018 to 2021.
Here’s a breakdown of how many votes each nominee earned:
Minister of Communications: Sattar Hashemi, 264 votes
Minister of Intelligence: Esmaeil Khatib, 261 votes
Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance: Abdolnaser Hemmati, 192 votes
Minister of Foreign Affairs: Abbas Araghchi, 247 votes
Minister of Education: Alireza Kazemi, 268 votes
Minister of Health and Medical Education: Muhammad Reza Zafarghandi, 163 votes
Minister of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare: Ahmad Meidari, 191 votes
Minister of Justice: Amin Hussein Rahimi, 268 votes
Minister of Defense: Aziz Nasirzadeh, 281 votes
Minister of Roads: Farzaneh Sadegh Malvajerd, 231 votes
Minister of Industry, Mines, and Trade: Muhammad Atabak, 231 votes
Minister of Science: Hussein Simayi Sarraf, 221 votes
Minister of Culture: Abbas Saleh Shariati, 272 votes
Minister of Agriculture: Gholamreza Nouri Ghezeljeh, 253 votes
Minister of Interior: Eskandar Momeni, 259 votes
Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts: Muhammad Reza Salehi Amiri, 168 votes
Minister of Oil: Mohsen Paknejad, 222 votes
Minister of Energy: Abbas Aliabadi, 255 votes
Minister of Sports and Youth: Ahmad Donyamali, 253 votes