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Iran’s hardline parliament has endorsed the cabinet proposed by reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, an important victory for the new head of government and a moment of national unity as the Islamic Republic faced mounting foreign and domestic challenges.
Presenting his 19 nominees ahead of a vote in parliament on Wednesday, Pezeshkian said his new cabinet was a compromise built to avoid political discord, which was necessary to bolster unity within the political hierarchy and better address the nation’s problems.
He admitted that some of his ministers were selected by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, including foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, a diplomat and former nuclear negotiator, and Farzaneh Sadegh, the sole female minister who will take charge of roads and urban development. Sadegh is only the second woman to hold a ministerial position in Iran’s male-dominated government since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
“You know we didn’t choose these ministers without co-ordination” with Khamenei, the intelligence service and the powerful Revolutionary Guard, said Pezeshkian in a rare public acknowledgment of Iran’s political structures. “I had certain ideals, but I compromised because unity is more important to me than those ideals. When we stand together, we’re stronger than when we’re powerful but divided,” he added.
Araghchi won the support of 247 of the 288 MPs present and 231 backed Sadegh, with most candidates given strong support. The lowest number was for health minister Mohammad-Reza Zafarghandi, who got 163 votes.
The show of unity comes at a critical time for Iran, as it continues to vow retaliation against Israel following the assassination last month of Hamas’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh. Haniyeh was killed in Tehran just hours after attending Pezeshkian’s inauguration ceremony, which Iran has blamed on Israel. It remains unclear why Iran or its ally Hizbollah have not so far responded and whether they plan to do so in the future.
Pezeshkian was the unexpected victor of the presidential election that followed the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in May. He won the run-off vote against hardliner Saeed Jalili after a campaign that promised to ease domestic political tensions via the formation of a national unity government, and a pledge to seek relief from US sanctions through the resumption of nuclear negotiations with global powers.
Hardliners in parliament have criticised Araghchi and the previous nuclear negotiations he was involved in from 2013-2015, with some threatening to vote against his confirmation. Amir-Hossein Sabeti, a hardline parliamentarian, went further by arguing that “one man” — a reference to the supreme leader — should not determine who parliament endorsed, as this undermined the legislative body’s legitimacy. His remarks on Sunday sent shockwaves through Iran’s political establishment, even among fellow hardliners.
Analysts believe the regime is attempting to rein in the country’s more extreme elements and, through appointments such as Araghchi, give nuclear negotiations another chance to strike a deal that can alleviate the country’s economic woes.
“This vote of confidence to all ministers was an endorsement of moderation and the failure of radical hardliners,” Mehdi Arab Sadegh, a conservative analyst, wrote on X, adding that “rationality won over extremism”.