The Iranian parliament (Majlis) has ended the debate on nominees for the country’s new cabinet and approved all of President Masoud Pezeshkian’s 19 cabinet picks.
In a session on Wednesday, following four days of intense deliberations and hearings, the lawmakers voted in favor of all 19 ministers proposed by the new president.
Pezeshkian submitted the list of his proposed ministerial picks to the parliament for a vote of confidence on August 11, 12 days after his swearing-in ceremony.
The lawmakers convened on Saturday to discuss the qualifications and programs of the ministerial nominees and the process continued till Wednesday before the voting took place.
Among the ministerial nominees to get the parliament’s nod is Abbas Aragchi, who will take over as the Islamic Republic of Iran’s new foreign minister, succeeding Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.
Ahead of the voting on Wednesday, President Pezeshkian addressed the parliament and urged them to approve his ministerial nominees while also calling for “unity and cohesion.”
Following the tragic helicopter crash that resulted in the death of President Ebrahim Raeisi on May 19, Pezeshkian emerged as one of the six final candidates selected by the Constitutional Council from a pool of 80 individuals vying for the presidency.
He won the highest number of votes in the first round of the presidential election on June 28 and faced off the runner-up, Saeed Jalili, in the runoff election on July 5.
The physician-turned-politician from northern Iran’s Tabriz city and former health minister won the runoff by garnering 53.66 percent of the total number of votes cast.
Here’s a breakdown of how many votes each nominee earned:
- Minister of Communications: Sattar Hashemi, 264 votes
- Minister of Intelligence: Seyed Esmaeil Khatib, 261 votes
- Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance: Abdolnaser Hemmati, 192 votes
- Minister of Foreign Affairs: Abbas Araghchi, 247 votes
- Minister of Education: Alireza Kazemi, 268 votes
- Minister of Health and Medical Education: Mohammadreza Zafarghandi, 163 votes
- Minister of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare: Ahmad Meidari, 191 votes
- Minister of Justice: Amin Hossein Rahimi, 268 votes
- Minister of Defense: Aziz Nasirzadeh, 281 votes
- Minister of Roads: Ms. Farzaneh Sadegh Malvajerd, 231 votes
- Minister of Industry, Mines, and Trade: Mohammad Atabak, 231 votes
- Minister of Science: Hossein Simayi Sarraf, 221 votes
- Minister of Culture: Seyed Abbas Saleh Shariati, 272 votes
- Minister of Agriculture: Gholamreza Nouri Ghezeljeh, 253 votes
- Minister of Interior: Eskandar Momeni, 259 votes
- Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts: Mohammadreza Salehi Amiri, 168 votes
- Minister of Oil: Mohsen Paknejad, 222 votes
- Minister of Energy: Abbas Aliabadi, 255 votes
- Minister of Sports and Youth: Ahmad Donyamali, 253 votes
Source: Press TV
