Iran president to pick Cabinet, nuclear team

Turkish Daily News:

Friday, August 5, 2005

TEHRAN - Reuters

Iran's new President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promises to deliver a "new era of justice," but for now he has to pick a Cabinet accepted by hardliners who helped elect him and deal with a diplomatic row over nuclear policy.

Ahmadinejad inherits a diplomatic stand-off the European Union has warned could end in Iran referred for U.N. sanctions if it does not back down from its threat to restart nuclear work the bloc suspects might be aimed at building an atomic bomb.

The former Revolutionary Guard began his first day in office on Thursday issuing austere edicts asking for his picture not to be put up in government offices and ordering civil servants not to waste money sending him letters of congratulations.

The real work of his government begins after Saturday when he takes the oath of office and announces his Cabinet, which is expected to contain a blend of conservatives and technocrats.

His choices are likely to be determined by deference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's most powerful figure, whose hand Ahmadinejad bent over and kissed as his first act as president.

"He has to consult with the Supreme leader," said a political analyst who declined to be named. "He came to power with the hardliners' backing, now he has to satisfy them."

The nuclear issue is set to dominate the opening of Ahmadinejad's presidency.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani said on Wednesday he might be removed by Ahmadinejad, but said there would be no policy change under a new negotiating team.

"Iran's nuclear policy is ... decided by top officials. It will not be changed," he told state television.

Local media have said former state broadcasting chief Ali Larijani, a hardliner close to Khamenei, would replace Rohani and take charge of the nuclear negotiations with the EU.

Continuity:

A nuclear expert is also tipped for the Foreign Ministry. Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran's former envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with a doctorate in nuclear physics, is a strong contender for foreign minister, newspapers said.

Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, after eight years heading the oil ministry and 22 years as a minister, is also due for a change, something he hinted strongly at last week.

"This is the last news conference I am attending as the oil minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran," he said.

Establishment hardliners have repeatedly criticized Zanganeh for what they call rampant corruption, especially in the negotiation of Iran's buy-back oil deals.

Ahmadinejad's candidates for oil minister of OPEC's second biggest producer have provoked mixed emotions in foreign executives, though they do not expect radical change in policy.

The list of five possible successors includes several unknown quantities to oil multinationals -- among them acting mayor of Tehran Ali Saeedlou, Hossein Nejabat -- a member of the parliamentary energy commission and Kamal Daneshyar who heads the energy commission.

The safest bets for foreign energy investors are deputy oil minister Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, who heads the state-run National Petrochemical Company (NPC) and Ali Beheshtian, a former deputy oil minister for onshore affairs who manages the petrochemical industry's investment company.

The new ministers are expected get the necessary approval in Cabinet with few hitches, though some of Ahmadinejad's allies who dominate the assembly have warned him not to think of incorporating any reformers from the ousted government.

Reformers too say they want nothing to do with the new government so as not to be tarred by any its failures.

"The Cabinet should be from the same political group. Such Cabinet will take full responsibility for its actions," the Aftab-e Yazd newspaper quoted the brother of the last president and leading reformer Mohammad Reza Khatami as saying.