Iran parliament approves president’s entire cabinet, a first since 2001 

Iran’s parliament has approved all 19 ministers of President Masoud Pezeshkian, the first time in more than two decades a leader has been able to get all of his officials through the body.

The cabinet approved on Wednesday after days of debate is cross-factional, reflecting the president’s focus on consensus.

In contrast to former President Ebrahim Raisi’s team, which was considered hardline, the new cabinet includes reformist figures, such as Health Minister Mohammadreza Zafarqandi, who secured his position despite receiving the lowest number of votes at 163.

The parliament’s approval of the ministers is not a formality. One minister proposed in 2021 by Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May, lost the confidence vote due to lacking experience.

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

Getting his officials approved shows Pezeshkian picked a cabinet of consensus with names palatable to all of the power centres within Iran’s theocracy as opposed to going for controversial choices.

Former Foreign Minister Mohamamad Javad Zarif, who campaigned for Pezeshkian during the election, later resigned as a vice president for the new leader over the cabinet selections.

Farzaneh Sadeq was approved as minister of roads and transportation, becoming the second female cabinet minister since the Islamic republic’s establishment in 1979.

Mohsen Paknejad was approved as minister of oil. He served as deputy minister of oil from 2018 to 2021.

Abbas Araqchi was approved as minister of foreign affairs with 247 votes after persuading parliamentarians wary of his key role in negotiating Tehran’s 2015 nuclear agreement with six world powers.

During deliberations with the parliament, Araqchi asserted that he holds the same world view he held during his time serving with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and expressed support for a 2020 parliamentary bill hardening Iran’s nuclear stance.

In 2018, the United States under then-President Donald Trump withdrew unilaterally from the nuclear accord, which restricted Tehran’s nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief. Trump then reinstated US sanctions on Iran.

Indirect talks between the US and Tehran to revive the deal and lift the costly US sanctions have stalled.

In an address to parliament on Sunday, Araqchi stressed that Tehran would continue its policy of good neighbourliness and negotiations to lift sanctions.

“China, Russia, Africa, Latin America and East Asia are priority regions in our foreign policy,” Araqchi said, adding that Europe could become a priority if it changed its “hostile behaviour” and relations with the US would be informed solely by “conflict management”.