Iran’s parliament approves 15 of Hassan Rouhani’s 18 cabinet ministers

Iran's conservative-dominated parliament has approved most of the cabinet ministers selected by the country's new moderate president, Hassan Rouhani.

After four days of parliamentary debates and 18 proposed ministers grilled by MPs, the parliament issued its verdict on Thursday by giving vote of confidence to 15 nominees.

Mohammad Javaz Zarif, a US-educated veteran Iranian diplomat previously involved in secret Tehran-Washington talks, was confirmed as the country's new foreign minister and Bijan Zanganeh as the oil minister. Key positions in the new cabinet are now held by technocrats and pro-reform moderates.

Rouhani had presented his cabinet wish-list to parliament on the day he was sworn in, 4 August, in order to show his determination to solve Iran's many problems amid financial stringency at home and international crisis abroad.

Only three nominees were blocked, including Mohammad Ali Najafi and Jafar Mili Monfared, who were rejected apparently because of their past support for the opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who are currently under house arrest.

The parliamentary debates, broadcast live on state television for the first time in four days, were dominated by the question of whether the nominees supported the popular uprising in the aftermath of the 2009 "rigged" election, dubbed as "sedition" by Iranian hardliners.

Conservatives close to the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, including Keyhan newspapers, had asked MPs to reject those nominees who had endorsed "the sedition". In his speech to parliament Rouhani expressed his "condolences" to the Egyptian people and warned the country's army not to suppress them. "The great people of Egypt are a great and freedom-seeking people. Do not suppress them. The way of the people is the way of democracy and Islam. Everyone in the world should respect the wishes of the Egyptian people," he said.

Rouhani has been criticised by human rights activists for his choice of justice minister, Mostafa Pourmohammadi. Human Rights Watch and the New York-based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said this week that Pourmohammadi was implicated in human rights abuses and execution of political prisoners after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

"Pourmohammadi's nomination would be not only a blow to all those who fight against impunity in Iran, but also one more act of humiliation for the families of the journalists and dissidents killed or tortured while he was in office," said Lucie Morillon, head of the research department at Reporters Without Borders. "One should not underestimate the chilling effect his nomination could have on the ability of journalists and news providers to independently and effectively inform the public."