Foreign Minister Pick Received Parliamentary Support but Faced Tough Questions

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian appears to enjoy a modicum of parliamentary support for his proposed Cabinet ministers. But the Parliament’s questioning of his selection for foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, who served as deputy foreign minister and nuclear negotiator under former President Hassan Rouhani, showed the potential political pitfalls awaiting Araghchi and Pezeshkian’s future nuclear negotiations with the United States.   

In an interview with the committee, Araghchi explained his plans for the next four years, reportedly saying he will “operate within the framework and general principles of foreign policy, as defined by the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic … and abide by the strategic guidelines of the supreme leader, His Holiness Imam Khamenei, in particular ‘dignity, wisdom and expediency.'” If anything, the parliamentary questioning session has already demonstrated to Araghchi that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s words can be interpreted in different ways, perhaps even by Khamenei himself, depending on the supreme leader’s calculations of expediency. 

• August 18: Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesperson for the Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said, as quoted by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps mouthpiece Mashregh News: 
  • “The National Security and Foreign Policy Committee approves of Seyyed Abbas Araghchi as minister of foreign affairs.”
• August 19: Mashregh News‘ summary of the questions and statements from parliamentarians, focused largely on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal, reflected the potential political pitfalls awaiting Araghchi:  
• • Mohammad Reza Ahmadi said: “You disregarded the national dignity by reaching the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in an emotional move … As a Muslim, you should have avoided this. You poured concrete into the heart of the Arak reactor and ignored the leader’s conditions.” 
  • Mohammad Reza Sabbaghian Bafghi asked: “Mr. Araghchi, why did you agree to a one-sided agreement?” referencing the Iran nuclear deal. 
  • Amir Hossein Sabeti: “We are discussing national interests. Whoever takes the time to read this harmful agreement would never agree with it, and there is no chance you would vote for someone responsible for it. We have been harmed by the JCPOA for years. Look what calamities befell our nuclear reactor in Arak.”
  • Meysam Zohourian asserted: “I have issue with immature positions of Mr. Araghchi when it comes to economic and political issues. When he served as deputy foreign minister, he habitually related the livelihood of the people to actions of the foreigners. Again and again, he said ‘the issue of the Financial Action Task Force must be solved before we can continue negotiations with the Europeans.'”

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