Iran: President Raïssi presents a conservative and uniquely male government

Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi presented his government to parliament on Wednesday, state media reported, and proposed a conservative head of diplomacy as Iran and the big powers try to save the international nuclear deal .

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Hossein Amir Abdollahian was chosen to replace Mohammad Javad Zarif, in office since 2013 and architect, on the Iranian side, of the nuclear agreement with the moderate ex-president Hassan Rohani.

A dominant conservative

According to a list released by the government on Twitter, it is a predominantly conservative ministerial team, made up entirely of men.

The candidates for the new government should be officially announced on Saturday by the Parliament - largely dominated by the conservatives - which will have in the days to come to ratify their names by a vote of confidence.

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Hossein Amir Abdollahian is "

a prestigious diplomat of the resistance axis

", according to state television, which thus refers to Tehran and its allies in the region.

The 56-year-old is close to groups like the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, according to Iranian media, and author of several articles on Iran's foreign policy for the site of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to reports. local media.

Raïssi declared "to

support any diplomatic plan

" allowing the lifting of American sanctions, reinstated by the former American president, Donald Trump, who unilaterally pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal, in 2018.

These sanctions, which had been lifted for a time thanks to this agreement concluded in 2015 in Vienna between Tehran and the great powers, are strangling the Iranian economy.

While Washington has called for the "

rapid

"

resumption

of negotiations, they seem to have stalled in recent weeks, after six rounds of talks between Iran and the great powers.

The most recent ended on June 20, with no resumption date in prospect.

"

Negotiating with America has never been a taboo

"

Hossein Amir Abdollahian was Iran's envoy to negotiate with senior US officials on Iraq's security situation, in a joint committee based in Baghdad.

“

Negotiating with America has never been a taboo,

” he tweeted in 2018, alluding to these negotiations and clarifying that the problem was the “

intimidating United States

”

maneuvers

.

He was also deputy minister in charge of Arab and African affairs, before being replaced in 2016, a decision strongly criticized by conservative opponents of moderate ex-president Hassan Rouhani.

Ambassador to Bahrain from 2007 to 2010, Mr. Amir Abdollahian also worked for two Speakers of Parliament as an envoy for Foreign Affairs.

Named on the US sanctions list

In addition to Mr. Amir Abdollahian, the list of new ministers includes Javad Owji as Minister of Oil, a sector largely affected by US sanctions.

The former Minister of Oil, Admiral Rostam Ghasemi, a former presidential candidate, has been appointed Minister of Transport.

The post of Minister of the Interior goes to Amir Vahidi, while that of Tourism goes to Ezzatollah Zarghami.

Ghasemi, Vahidi and Zarghami are all former members of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic, and are on the US sanctions list.