Iran's conservative-dominated parliament has approved reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian's proposed cabinet, which includes one woman and a foreign minister open to dialogue with the West.
Wednesday's vote marked the first time in 23 years that Iran's parliament endorsed all ministers proposed by a president, since the term of reformist Mohammad Khatami, according to the reformist daily Etemad.
The show of unity comes at a critical time for Iran, as the Islamic Republic faces mounting foreign and domestic challenges. It also comes as Tehran continues to vow retaliation against Israel following the assassination last month of Hamas’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital. Iran blamed Israel for the killing.
Mr Pezeshkian's cabinet line-up had drawn criticism from some among Iran's reformist camp, particularly over the inclusion of conservatives from his predecessor Ebrahim Raisi's government. Others criticised it for the absence of ethnic and religious minorities and for not including more women.
Former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif resigned as vice president of strategic affairs over dissatisfaction with the president's cabinet selection. Mr Zarif was in charge of forming the committees to choose the new ministers under Mr Pezeshkian.
During a session broadcast on state television, legislators voted in favour of all 19 ministers chosen by Mr Pezeshkian – who was inaugurated in July after former president Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash. An investigation into the crash found it was caused by bad weather and that there was “absolute certainty that what happened was an accident,” Iranian media said on Wednesday, citing an official.
In a speech in parliament ahead of the vote, Mr Pezeshkian said he initially had other candidates in mind “but when I saw that there was no mutual agreement on them, I backed down”.
“Because agreement was more important to me than ideal [candidates],” he added, vowing “to move forward with unity”.
The President later held his first session with the newly approved cabinet.
Following the vote, Mr Pezeshkian posted a photo of himself on social media platform X alongside Iran's conservative Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, with a caption reading “consensus for Iran”.
“The parliament will be with the government on the way to solving the problems of the country,” Mr Ghalibaf wrote on social media platform X after the vote.
Key ministers
The new cabinet includes Abbas Araghchi, 61, a career diplomat, who becomes Iran's new Foreign Minister, replacing Hossein Amirabdollahian, who died alongside Mr Raisi in May.
Mr Araghchi, known for openness towards the West, has recently vowed “all-round support for the axis of resistance and Palestine” during a speech in parliament, referencing pro-Tehran armed groups opposed to Israel, including Palestinian Hamas militants, Iraqi movements and Yemen's Houthi rebels.
He led the Iran nuclear talks in 2013 and played a role in sealing the milestone 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and western countries.
But the deal, designed to regulate Iran's atomic activities in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions, collapsed in 2018 after unilateral US withdrawal.
Wednesday's vote also approved the only woman in the cabinet, Farzaneh Sadegh.
She becomes the second woman to hold a ministerial post since the Islamic republic's establishment in 1979.
Ms Sadegh, 47, will head the ministry of roads and urban development.
Gen Aziz Nasirzadeh, a former commander of the Iranian air force and deputy chief of staff of the armed forces since 2021, was confirmed as Defence Minister.
He obtained 281 out of 288 votes in the 290-seat parliament – the highest number yet for a minister, according to IRNA state news agency.
Mr Pezeshkian's pick for Minister of Intelligence, Esmail Khatib, who led the same ministry under Mr Raisi, was also among those approved by parliament.
Mr Raisi's minister of industries, Abbas Aliabadi, becomes Energy Minister.
With reporting from agencies
Disclaimer
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville
Rating: 4/5
UK’s AI plan
- AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
- £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
- £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
- £250m to train new AI models
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Schedule
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Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
Desert Warrior
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Rating: 3/5
Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECreator%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESteven%20Knight%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%C2%A0%3C%2Fstrong%3EMark%20Ruffalo%2C%20Hugh%20Laurie%2C%20Aria%20Mia%20Loberti%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E1%2F5%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Panipat
Director Ashutosh Gowariker
Produced Ashutosh Gowariker, Rohit Shelatkar, Reliance Entertainment
Cast Arjun Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Kriti Sanon, Mohnish Behl, Padmini Kolhapure, Zeenat Aman
Rating 3 /5 stars
Kanye%20West
%3Cp%3EYe%20%E2%80%94%20the%20rapper%20formerly%20known%20as%20Kanye%20West%20%E2%80%94%20has%20seen%20his%20net%20worth%20fall%20to%20%24400%20million%20in%20recent%20weeks.%20That%E2%80%99s%20a%20precipitous%20drop%20from%20Bloomberg%E2%80%99s%20estimates%20of%20%246.8%20billion%20at%20the%20end%20of%202021.%3Cbr%3EYe%E2%80%99s%20wealth%20plunged%20after%20business%20partners%2C%20including%20Adidas%2C%20severed%20ties%20with%20him%20on%20the%20back%20of%20anti-Semitic%20remarks%20earlier%20this%20year.%3Cbr%3EWest%E2%80%99s%20present%20net%20worth%20derives%20from%20cash%2C%20his%20music%2C%20real%20estate%20and%20a%20stake%20in%20former%20wife%20Kim%20Kardashian%E2%80%99s%20shapewear%20firm%2C%20Skims.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
More coverage from the Future Forum
US PGA Championship in numbers
1 Joost Luiten produced a memorable hole in one at the par-three fourth in the first round.
2 To date, the only two players to win the PGA Championship after winning the week before are Rory McIlroy (2014 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational) and Tiger Woods (2007, WGC-Bridgestone Invitational). Hideki Matsuyama or Chris Stroud could have made it three.
3 Number of seasons without a major for McIlroy, who finished in a tie for 22nd.
4 Louis Oosthuizen has now finished second in all four of the game's major championships.
5 In the fifth hole of the final round, McIlroy holed his longest putt of the week - from 16ft 8in - for birdie.
6 For the sixth successive year, play was disrupted by bad weather with a delay of one hour and 43 minutes on Friday.
7 Seven under par (64) was the best round of the week, shot by Matsuyama and Francesco Molinari on Day 2.
8 Number of shots taken by Jason Day on the 18th hole in round three after a risky recovery shot backfired.
9 Jon Rahm's age in months the last time Phil Mickelson missed the cut in the US PGA, in 1995.
10 Jimmy Walker's opening round as defending champion was a 10-over-par 81.
11 The par-four 11th coincidentally ranked as the 11th hardest hole overall with a scoring average of 4.192.
12 Paul Casey was a combined 12 under par for his first round in this year's majors.
13 The average world ranking of the last 13 PGA winners before this week was 25. Kevin Kisner began the week ranked 25th.
14 The world ranking of Justin Thomas before his victory.
15 Of the top 15 players after 54 holes, only Oosthuizen had previously won a major.
16 The par-four 16th marks the start of Quail Hollow's so-called "Green Mile" of finishing holes, some of the toughest in golf.
17 The first round scoring average of the last 17 major champions was 67.2. Kisner and Thorbjorn Olesen shot 67 on day one at Quail Hollow.
18 For the first time in 18 majors, the eventual winner was over par after round one (Thomas shot 73).
Greatest Royal Rumble results
John Cena pinned Triple H in a singles match
Cedric Alexander retained the WWE Cruiserweight title against Kalisto
Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt win the Raw Tag Team titles against Cesaro and Sheamus
Jeff Hardy retained the United States title against Jinder Mahal
Bludgeon Brothers retain the SmackDown Tag Team titles against the Usos
Seth Rollins retains the Intercontinental title against The Miz, Finn Balor and Samoa Joe
AJ Styles remains WWE World Heavyweight champion after he and Shinsuke Nakamura are both counted out
The Undertaker beats Rusev in a casket match
Brock Lesnar retains the WWE Universal title against Roman Reigns in a steel cage match
Braun Strowman won the 50-man Royal Rumble by eliminating Big Cass last
