Araghchi, Nasirzadeh and Khatib: Meet Iran’s new cabinet under Pezeshkian
The new cohort of ministers includes officials from both hard-liner and moderate camps; it also includes the first female minister in over a decade.
The Iranian parliament approved Masoud Pezeshkian’s proposed cabinet on Wednesday, as the new president seeks to boost engagement with the outside world.
Members of the parliament, dominated by hard-liners, voted overwhelmingly to approve all 19 ministers selected by Pezeshkian. The ministers received between 281 and 163 votes in the 290-member body, with 288 members present. Pezeshkian expressed his gratitude for the support by writing to parliament speaker and former election rival, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, as reported by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
Pezeshkian, a Reformist and former member of parliament, was elected and took office in July, defeating hard-liner Saeed Jalili in a run-off. The special election was called following the death of former President Ebrahim Raisi, former Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other officials in a helicopter crash in May.
Under the Islamic Republic system, the president has significant executive duties, but Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ultimate control.
Here are some of the key figures in Pezeshkian’s cabinet:
Foreign Affairs Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi
Araghchi is a career diplomat who was a member of the team that negotiated the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. He served as deputy foreign minister for political affairs beginning in 2018, until he became foreign minister. His previous positions include deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, ministry spokesperson and ambassador to Japan. He holds a Ph.D. from Kent University in the United Kingdom and speaks English and Arabic, according to his official biography on the Foreign Ministry website.
Araghchi’s experience could help him domestically, according to some observers.
“He enjoys robust ‘revolutionary’ credentials that could partially shield him from domestic criticism should Iran make concessions on key issues,” read an August report from the Stimson Center.
The diplomat has been described as “pragmatic” by some media outlets, including Reuters and the semiofficial Press TV.
Araghchi’s boss, Pezeshkian, pledged to increase Iran’s engagement with the international community, in part to alleviate the effect of sanctions. Iranian academic Arash Azizi told Al-Monitor last month that Khamenei wants a new course for foreign policy due to Iran’s isolation.
“He also wants some change,” said Azizi. “He saw that Iran was becoming dangerously isolated internationally.”
Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Aziz Nasirzadeh
Nasirzadeh received the most votes of any cabinet member with 281. He served as deputy chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces before his current position. In August of 2023, he participated in the first meeting between Iranian and Saudi military officials since the two countries resumed diplomatic relations earlier that year, the semiofficial Mehr News Agency reported at the time.
Nasirzadeh was chief of the Iranian air force from 2018 to 2021, per the Associated Press. He flew US-made F-14 Tomcats earlier in his career and is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88), the US-government-funded Radio Free Europe reported in 2018. Iran bought the fighter jets from the United States before the 1979 Islamic revolution that overthrew Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and led to the severing of US-Iran relations.
Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib
Khatib was already intelligence minister, having served in the position since 2021, when Raisi took office. He is a cleric who studied under both Khamenei and the first Ayatollah, Ruhollah Khomeini. Khatib has held a variety of intelligence positions, including in the judiciary’s counterintelligence apparatus, according to the anti-Iranian government group United Against a Nuclear Iran.
The US Treasury Department sanctioned Khatib in 2022, accusing him of leading “cyber espionage and ransomware attacks in support of Iran’s political goals.” The move followed an Iranian cyberattack on Albania that year.
Housing and Road Minister Farzaneh Sadegh
Sadegh is an architect. She is the first female minister in Iran in more than a decade, according the Associated Press.
Under the Islamic Republic, Iran had its first female minister, Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi, who was the minister of health in 2009.
Prior to that, the first female cabinet member in Iran was Farrokhroo Parsa. She served as the minister of education from 1968 to 1971 under the rule of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, before the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Farrokhroo Parsa was fierce advocate for women’s rights and education.
After the Islamic revolution, because of her views and tenure during Shah, she was executed by a firing squad under new regime in 1980.
Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad
Paknejad served as deputy minister of petroleum for supervision over hydrocarbon resources from 2018 to 2021 under former President Hassan Rouhani. He began his career working for the Energy Ministry in the early 1990s before taking several managerial positions in the Petroleum Ministry starting in 1997, according to the latter’s news service, Shana.
Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi
Aliabadi served as minister of industries under Raisi, assuming the position in June of last year. He was previously CEO of the Iranian energy conglomerate MAPNA Group, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.
Economy and Finance Minister Abdolnaser Hemmati
Hammati served as governor of Iran’s Central Bank from 2018 until 2021. The Atlantic Council described him as a “moderate” and a “technocrat” in a 2021 report. He ran for president in 2021, coming in third place with 9.81% of the vote.
Know more: The other members of the cabinet are as follows: Justice Minister Amin Hossein Rahimi, who also served under Raisi; Education Minister Alireza Kazemi; Communications Minister Sattar Hashemi; Health Minister Mohammadreza Zafarghandi; Labor Minister Ahmed Midari; Agricultural Jihad Minister Gholamreza Nouri Qazaljeh; Silence Minister Seyyed Mohammad Atabak; Science Minister Hossein Simai Saraf; Culture Minister Seyyed Abbas Salehi; Interior Minister Iskandar Momeni; Tourism Minister Seyed Reza Salehi Amiri; Sports Minister Ahmad Donya Mali.
Former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif resigned from his position as vice president earlier this month, just days after assuming the post under Pezeshkian. Zarif was upset with the new president’s proposed cabinet amid apparent interference from hard-liners, Al-Monitor's correspondent in Tehran reported.
