Some Names in President Rouhani’s New Cabinet Revealed

Despite rumors that Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh would not stay in office in Rouhani’s second term, he was appointed as the nominee for the cabinet post in a meeting of the high-ranking officials of the current administration on Tuesday night.

Minister of Cooperative, Labor and Welfare Ali Rabiee was also appointed as Rouhani’s nominee for the same position.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the last cabinet session on Wednesday, Vice-President for Women and Family Affairs Shahindokht Molaverdi announced that three women would be on the new cabinet list.

Vice-President for Legal Affairs Majid Ansari also told reporters that he would not stay in office in Rouhani’s second term.

Justice Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, who had also attended the last cabinet session, said an experienced judge would replace him.

President Rouhani is slated to take the oath of office at an open session of the parliament on Saturday, August 5.

The inaugural ceremony will be held after the endorsement of Rouhani’s presidency by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei.

Following the swearing-in ceremony, the president will have two weeks to submit his new cabinet to the parliament for a vote of confidence.

In Iran’s presidential election on May 19, Rouhani garnered 23,549,616 votes from a total of 41,220,131 ballots. The runner-up, Ebrahim Raisi, secured 38.5% of the votes.

No sitting president in Iran has failed to win a second term since 1981.

During the previous presidential election in June 2013, Rouhani had emerged victorious by winning 50.7 percent of a total of over 36 million votes. He had won more than three times as many votes as his closest challenger.