Iran's Hard-line Parliament Approves All Members of President's Cabinet, First Time Since 2001

Iranian lawmakers attend an open session of parliament during the third day of debate on the 19 proposed ministers by President Masoud Pezeshkian, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iranian lawmakers attend an open session of parliament during the third day of debate on the 19 proposed ministers by President Masoud Pezeshkian, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
TT

Iran's Hard-line Parliament Approves All Members of President's Cabinet, First Time Since 2001

Iranian lawmakers attend an open session of parliament during the third day of debate on the 19 proposed ministers by President Masoud Pezeshkian, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iranian lawmakers attend an open session of parliament during the third day of debate on the 19 proposed ministers by President Masoud Pezeshkian, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iran's hard-line parliament on Wednesday approved all members of reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian's Cabinet, the first time in over two decades a leader 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 killed his hard-line predecessor.

Getting his officials approved shows Pezeshkian picked a Cabinet of consensus with names palatable to all of the power centers within Iran's theocracy, as opposed to going for controversial choices as well. Former Foreign Minister Mohamamad Javad Zarif, who campaigned for Pezeshkian in his election, later resigned as a vice president for the new leader over the Cabinet selections, The AP reported.

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

“Consensus for Iran,” he wrote in the caption.

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 lifting of sanctions.

In 2018, then-President Donald Trump pulled the US 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.

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 Mohammad 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.

Dropping proposed ministers has been a tradition in Iran’s parliament, making Pezeshkian's success that much more striking. Former reformist President Mohammad Khatami was the only president who received vote of confidence for all of his proposed ministers in both 1997 and 2001.



Russia’s Medvedev Says There Will No Talks with Ukraine After Kursk Incursion 

A destroyed Russian tank sits on a roadside near the town of Sudzha, Russia, in the Kursk region, on Aug. 16, 2024. (AP Photo, File)
A destroyed Russian tank sits on a roadside near the town of Sudzha, Russia, in the Kursk region, on Aug. 16, 2024. (AP Photo, File)
TT

Russia’s Medvedev Says There Will No Talks with Ukraine After Kursk Incursion 

A destroyed Russian tank sits on a roadside near the town of Sudzha, Russia, in the Kursk region, on Aug. 16, 2024. (AP Photo, File)
A destroyed Russian tank sits on a roadside near the town of Sudzha, Russia, in the Kursk region, on Aug. 16, 2024. (AP Photo, File)

Ukraine's incursion into Russia's Kursk region means there will be no talks between Moscow and Kyiv until Ukraine is completely defeated on the battlefield, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia's Security Council, said on Wednesday.

"The casual chit-chat of self-proclaimed intermediaries on the virtuous subject of peace has ceased. Even if they cannot say it out loud, everyone recognizes the reality of the situation," Medvedev wrote on his official account on the Telegram messaging app.

"They understand that there will be NO NEGOTIATIONS UNTIL THE ENEMY IS COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY DESTROYED!"

Medvedev, who has styled himself as one of the Kremlin's toughest anti-Western hawks, said that the "premature and unnecessary peace" talks that had previously been suggested "had vague prospects and no tangible outcomes."