Hours after Iran’s newly elected reformist President, Masoud Bazeshkian, submitted his proposed cabinet to the Parliament, Mohammad Javad Zarif announced his resignation as Iran’s Vice President on Sunday.
President Bazeshkian appointed veteran diplomat Abbas Araghchi, known for his openness to dialogue with the West, as Foreign Minister and selected a woman to head the Ministry of Roads. During a parliamentary session broadcasted on state television, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf read out the names of the 19 proposed ministers. The Parliament will begin reviewing the ministers on Monday, with voting on each minister set to start on Saturday.
A few hours after this step, Zarif announced his resignation from the Vice Presidency in a tweet on his X account (formerly Twitter), stating that he was “not satisfied with the outcome of my work, and I am ashamed that I could not secure the opinions of expert committees as I had promised. Naturally, some vice presidents remain, and we hope they can compensate for this shortfall.”
The recently resigned Vice President explained that “this first experience was full of shortcomings and will undoubtedly be improved in the future. I apologize for not being able to follow up on matters in the corridors of internal politics. Some have considered me quick-tempered.”
He added, “I believe that over the past twelve years, I have demonstrated patience and resilience against unprecedented attacks, more than many claimants, but I am very sensitive to people’s concerns and issues.”
Bazeshkian chose Eskandar Momeni, a former officer in the Revolutionary Guard and a former police chief, for the Ministry of Interior, and Aziz Nasirzadeh, the former Air Force commander in the army and deputy chief of the joint staff of the armed forces since 2021, for the Ministry of Defense.
The President of Iran does not have absolute powers but heads the Supreme National Security Council and the executive branch (there is no Prime Minister in the country), one of the three branches of government alongside the legislative and judicial branches. The President plays a crucial role in directing government policies both domestically and internationally.
However, the head of state and the ultimate authority in Iran’s highest policies is Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Bazeshkian was elected in July after winning the second round of presidential elections against hardline conservative Saeed Jalili. The elections were held early following the death of Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in May.
In his cabinet, Bazeshkian retained the Ministry of Intelligence under Esmail Khatib, who held the position in Raisi’s government, and proposed former Central Bank governor Abdolnasser Hemmati for the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
During his election campaign, Bazeshkian pledged to work towards reviving the nuclear agreement. In a message published in an English-language local newspaper last July, he expressed his readiness to engage in “constructive dialogue” with European countries despite their “backtracking on commitments” to mitigate the impact of sanctions.
He outlined the broad lines of his foreign policy, emphasizing the “need for Washington to recognize reality and understand, once and for all, that Iran will not and cannot yield to pressure.”
