The new president of Iran Masoud Pezeshkian proposed the candidacies of Abbas Aragchi and Aziz Nasirzadeh respectively for foreign affairs and Minister of Defense, Pezeshkian's press service reported.
Aragchi served as deputy foreign minister in the second government of reformist President Hassan Rouhani from 2017 to 2021. For a long time, Aragchi led the Iranian delegation in the nuclear deal negotiations. He repeatedly came to Moscow to meet with representatives of the Russian Foreign Ministry. During the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), he served in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Currently - Secretary of the Iranian Strategic Council for International Relations.
On July 6, a member of the board of directors of the Tehran-based Institute for Iran-Eurasian Studies, Professor Mahmoud Shuri, noted in an interview with TASS that Aragchi is considered one of the main candidates for the post of head of the Foreign Ministry of the Islamic Republic.
Major General Nasirzadeh currently holds the position of First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces and has come on working visits to Moscow.
All candidates must receive parliamentary approval. Pezeshkian also presented to lawmakers the candidacies of former deputy head of the Ministry of Oil Mohsen Paknejad for the post of Iran's oil minister, former head of the Central Bank Abdolnaser Hemmati for the post of economy minister and Esmail Khatib for the minister of intelligence. Khatib is the only minister from the previous government to retain his ministerial portfolio.