Iran's president proposes ex-nuclear negotiator as foreign minister

DUBAI, Aug 11 (AP): Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday proposed former nuclear negotiator Abbas Araghchi as the country's new foreign minister and also sought to appoint a woman as roads and housing minister. If approved, she would be Iran's first female minister in more than a decade.

Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf read out the list of proposed ministers to lawmakers. The hard-line-dominated chamber will have two weeks to review qualifications and give a vote of confidence to the proposed ministers.

Araghchi, 61, a career diplomat, was a member of the Iranian negotiator team that reached a nuclear deal with world powers in 2015 that capped Tehran's nuclear program in return for the lifting sanctions.

In 2018, then-President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. 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.

Pezeshkian named Gen. Aziz Nasirzadeh, an F-14 Tomcat pilot, as defense minister. He was chief of the Iranian Air Force in 2018-2021. This would be the first time that a member of Iran's air force headed the defense ministry.

Pezeshkian proposed Farzaneh Sadegh as roads and housing minister. Sadegh, 53, is currently a director in the ministry. She would become only the second female minister in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. It is unclear, however, whether she will be approved.

The hard-line parliament seeks more cultural and social restrictions on women based on its interpretations of Islamic sharia. Many lawmakers voiced their opposition when her name was read by the speaker during Sunday's session.

The only previous female minister to be approved by parliament since the revolution was in 2009, when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad secured a post for Marzieh Vahid Dastgerdi as health minister.

Iranian presidents have, however, appointed women to be vice presidents, a role that is not subject to parliamentary approval. Last week, Pezeshkian appointed Zahra Behrouz Azar as vice president in charge of women's and family affairs.

The first female minister in Iran's history was Farrokroo Parsa, who served as education minister in 1968-1971. Revolutionary authorities executed her after the 1979 revolution that ousted the pro-Western monarchy and brough Islamists to power.

Pezeshkian proposed Eskandar Momeni, a relatively moderate police general, as interior minister. The ministry deals with enforcing the mandatory wearing of the Islamic veil on women.