The Iranian president says a familiar assassination method practiced by Israel was seen in the recent assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist.

Addressing a gathering in the southern province of Khuzestan on Thursday, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that the enemy is trying to obstruct Iran’s path to scientific success.

Iranian nuclear physics scientist Dr. Massoud Ali-Mohammadi was killed in a remote-controlled bomb attack in the Iranian capital on Tuesday.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry had earlier said that Iran had found traces of US and Israeli involvement in the assassination of Ali-Mohammadi.

“The style of bombing and assassination of the martyred Dr. Ali-Mohammadi was a Zionist one,” said the Iranian president.

The president added that the enemy knows that a developed Iran would culturally and not militarily conquer the world.

“They [the enemies] want to make sure that Iran does not advance,” President Ahmadinejad said.

“The enemy cannot remove the knowledge from the Iranian nation by killing its elite,” the president added.

The Iranian president says the Arab world can resolve the world’s “most important” problem by pressuring Israel into stopping its crimes against Palestinians.

“Palestine is the most important and determining issue in the world,” Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a Wednesday meeting with Oman’s visiting Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah.

“If Arab states pressure Israel into stop committing crimes against the Palestinian people, all problems will be solved. I hope that this is the course of action they will decide to take,” said the Iranian president.

“Israel’s current actions are not a sign of power. The extreme measures that it is taking indicate its weakness. Israel will reach the end in no time, if it meets some resistance,” Ahmadinejad added.

He called on regional countries to stand together in foiling enemy plots. Ahmadinejad said that by standing together, Middle Eastern states could prevent enemies from “taking advantage of divisions between brothers.”

Alawi for his part said that Arab countries had reached the conclusion that negotiation between Palestinians and the Israeli regime would yield no result.

“Arab states have reached a dead-end as a result of what Israel has been doing. So, they must start looking for a new way out to free themselves from the current situation,” he said.

The Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has taken a swipe at Israeli leaders, emphasizing the need of bringing them to justice in international courts.

“Leaders of the Zionist regime [Israel] should face trial and rights of the Palestinian people should be restored because the regime is currently in a weak position,” the Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying during a telephone conversation with his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad.

He underlined that the global front against imperialism must become stronger.

Ahmadinejad slammed ‘certain countries’ for their efforts to impose a compromise on the Palestinian people and said, “We should call on international bodies to bring leaders of the Zionist regime to trial.”

The Iranian president described the level of cooperation between Tehran and Damascus as satisfactory, reiterating that the bilateral ties changed the regional conditions over the last three decades to the interests of both sides.

AL-Assad praised the strategic relations between Iran and Syria and said that their common enemies would never damage the amicable ties.

Iran’s President expresses hope that Pakistan will stand up to foreign interference in its domestic affairs, saying closer cooperation among regional states can guarantee stability in the region.

In a telephone conversation with his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said violence inside Pakistan affects all neighboring countries because their security is intertwined.

Ahmadinejad also expressed hope that the Pakistani nation will stand up to foreign interference in their domestic affairs and return peace, stability and unity to their country.

“All countries in the region are deeply saddened by the torrent of bomb blasts, which usually claim the lives of innocent civilians,” said the Iranian President, adding that foreign powers are seeking to foment unrest in the region with their divisive policies.

In December 2009, Pakistani security forces arrested three US citizens, including a woman, working at the American Consulate for filming sensitive installations in the eastern city of Lahore.

Police have impounded their vehicle for legal action as it was bearing false license plates.

The Pakistani daily The Nation reported that after a thorough search of the woman, the security personnel recovered 11 pictures in her possession, which included photos of different police check-posts in the area.

She was arrested while actually taking pictures of a check-post near the Sherpao Bridge.

Military check-posts have frequently been targets of bomb attacks.

Iran and Turkmenistan are to be connected by a second gas pipeline during a visit by the Iranian President to the central Asian state next week.

“The new pipeline could raise the volume of Turkmenistan’s exported gas to Iran up to 14 billion cubic meters annually,” Iran’s Ambassador to Ashgabat, Mohammad-Reza Forqani, told Iran’s Mehr News Agency on Tuesday.

He added that the 65 km gas pipeline has been completed in only four months, thus being considered as one of the world’s fastest gas projects.

The new pipeline will pump natural gas from the Dovletabat gas field in southeastern Turkmenistan, which has so far only been transferred to Russia.

Iranian contractors are to carry out the project.

Bilateral trade between Iran and Turkmenistan reached $1.7 billion in 2007, over $1.4 billion of which consisted of Iranian exports to Turkmenistan.

Turkmenistan announced in July 2009 that Ashgabat and Tehran have agreed to significantly expand Turkmen gas exports to Iran.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to visit Turkmenistan on 5th and 6th January 2010 to inaugurate the Turkmenistan-Iran gas pipeline.

The Atrak-Gorgan railway worth around $650 million is another project to be launched in the presence of the Iranian president during the visit.

Iran’s Oil Transportation Company announced in September that it was ready to transfer gas from Turkmenistan to Iraq and the UAE.

“The nationwide gas network is now connected to neighboring countries from six locales,” the managing director of the company, Reza Almasi said.

Tehran and Ashgabat signed an agreement in February 2009, which would allow Iran to develop the Yolatan gas field in Turkmenistan and import a portion of the extracted gas annually.

Earlier in November, Turkmenistan said it has completed the construction of a gas pipeline to Iran that will help Ashgabat reduce its reliance on Russian-owned export routes.

After the Iranian president rejected a deadline set by the United States for diplomatic measures on the country’s nuclear case, the White House moved to warn that the deadline is “very real.”

Speaking in the central Iranian city of Shiraz on Tuesday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the West can “impose as many deadlines as they want on us, we don’t care.”

Reacting to the comment, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the end of this Christian year is “a very real deadline” for Iran to respond to Western demands over its nuclear program.

“Mr. Ahmadinejad may not recognize, for whatever reason, the deadline that looms, but that is a very real deadline for the international community,” Gibbs said.

The Tehran government faces pressure to halt its nuclear enrichment as world powers claim the program is aimed at building a nuclear bomb.

The Islamic Republic is already under three rounds of United Nations Security Council sanctions resolutions, demanding a halt to the country’s enrichment work.

Raising the specter of a fourth round of UN sanctions, Gibbs said, “We’ve begun to take those steps, if Iran is unwilling to pursue its responsibilities” on the nuclear issue.

Tehran says nuclear weapons have no place in its defensive doctrine and has called for the removal of all weapons of mass destruction from across the globe.

The US warning came hours after China rejected the push for sanctions on Iran, saying diplomatic efforts on Iran’s nuclear issue should be given more chance to succeed.

“We ask for more time to be given and efforts to be made to see if we can reach some sort of breakthrough,” Chinese envoy to the Security Council La Yifan said Tuesday.

The Iranian president called on Monday for the establishment of a national commission to calculate the amount of compensation for damages Iran sustained during World War II under British and Russian occupiers.

In a letter to Head of the Presidential Office Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tasked him with what he described as “asserting the Iranian nation’s inalienable rights.”

President Ahmadinejad described the level of hardship imposed on the nations of the world by global powers during the past century as “excessive.”

“The Second World War was launched with the aim of creating new divisions and enforcing discriminatory, one-sided structures,” President Ahmadinejad said in the letter.

He said while “a number of nations underwent pressure and suffered damages, certain governments benefited from political and materialistic profits.”

Despite Iran’s neutral stance in the war, the Iranian nation was placed among the “oppressed nations,” Ahmadinejad said.

The Iranian president said during the invasion of Iran by both Britain and the Soviet Union in August 1941, the Allies made use of the country’s infrastructure and resources to an extent that they named Iran as “The Bridge to Victory.”

Pointing to the compensation received by certain countries after the conflict, President Ahmadinejad said Iran is yet to be paid compensation in return for the suffering that its people endured.

The call for the establishment of the assessment commission comes as earlier last week the Iranian president talked of plans to write to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asking for the country to be compensated.

The Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, says his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has plans to visit Iran in future.

President Ahmadinejad made the remarks after returning home from a five-day tour which took him to five African and South American countries including Brazil.

Describing the whole tour as successful, the Iranian President added that “We had great talks with Brazilian officials. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is scheduled to visit Iran.”

“The development of ties between Iran and Brazil will influence our relations with Latin America,” he explained.

The Iranian chief executive began his tour of Gambia, Brazil, Bolivia, Venezuela and Senegal on Sunday, just days after Israeli president Shimon Peres completed a tour to Latin America aimed at rallying support against Tehran.

However, the Israeli president’s visit to Brazil and Argentina, home to the largest Jewish communities, led to angry demonstrations against the trip in both Latin American countries.

Iran’s close ties with Latin America and particularly Brazil are a cause of major concern both to Israel and its staunch ally, the US.

Ahmadinejad’s visit to Latin American and African countries comes also as Washington moves to prepare a new slate of sanctions against Iran over the country’s nuclear issue.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has thrown his weight behind Iran’s efforts to develop a nuclear program aimed at peaceful purposes in September’s UN gathering in New York.

During his stay in Brazil, Peres also met with the Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim who is considered to be one of the strongest men in the Brazilian government.

However, the Israeli leader’s efforts to overshadow Ahmadinejad’s upcoming visit seemed to be in vain as Jobim later asserted that Brazilian authorities would hold talks with whomever they pleased.

Jobim said that no one had the right to dictate to Brazil who to talk to or not, pointing out that the decision was entirely up to the Brazilian government.

Ahmadinejad was greeted by First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi, foreign policy adviser to Iran’s Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, Ali-Akbar Velayati, and several ministers and members of Parliament upon his arrival in Tehran on Friday morning.

The Iranian president says the country’s judicial system is responsible for issuing a ruling in the case of the three American hikers who were arrested near Iran’s border with Iraq on July 31.

Iran charged Shane Michael Bauer, Joshua Felix Fattal, and Sarah Emily Shourd with espionage on November 9.

The three entered the country to carry out acts of espionage, Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi said at the time.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in Brasilia on Monday that the Judiciary will determine whether the hikers will be released or punished, but added that he hopes a lenient verdict will be issued.

He made the comments two days after Iraq had reportedly contacted Tehran to secure the release of the detained US citizens.

Iran’s President is scheduled to begin his tour to five countries in Africa and South America on Sunday days after the Israeli president ended a tour aimed at rallying support against Tehran.

“Iranian President (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) will visit Brazil, Bolivia, Venezuela, Senegal and Gambia,” IRINN reported on Sunday.

“Ahmadinejad is slated to visit Gambia in the first leg of his five-day trip,” it added.

He will then visit Brazil on the second day. Bolivia, Venezuela and Senegal will be the next targets.

Ahmadinejad’s tour is aimed at boosting political and economic ties with the five African and South American countries.

Israeli President Shimon Peres’s week-long visit to Brazil and Argentina, the first trip to the countries after 40 and 20 years respectively, comes amid Iran’s amicable relationship with Latin American countries.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has thrown his weight behind Iran’s efforts to develop a nuclear program aimed at peaceful purposes in September’s UN gathering in New York.

Iran’s close ties with Latin America and particularly Brazil, the fifth largest country, has been a cause of major concern both for Israel and its staunch ally, the US.

A day after Iran’s ambassador to Brazil announced that Ahmadinejad and a large entourage of 110 representatives from 65 companies were to visit Brasilia early May 2009, US Secretary of State dubbed the development as “quite disturbing.”

Blaming US President Barack Obama’s predecessor for “Iran gains” in the region, the top US diplomat noted “I don’t think in today’s world, where it’s a multi-polar world, where we are competing for attention and relationships with the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, that it’s in our interest to turn our backs on our own hemisphere.”

The Israeli president’s visit to the two Latin American countries, home to the largest Jewish community in the region, also led to angry demonstrations against the trip.

Demonstrators denounced Tel Aviv’s deadly offensive against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip which killed more than 1400 people, a large number of them women and children.

In Argentina, protestors carried placards which read “Get out of Argentina, murderer Shimon Peres”, “Death to Zionist-fascist Israel, officer of American imperialism in the Middle East, murderers of the Palestinian people!”.

In Sao Paulo, Brazil, the Israeli President had been hailed as “Shimon Hitler”, during protests. Demonstrators carried placards showing Peres, sporting a short Hitlerian mustache standing next to an Israeli flag upon which a swastika had been drawn.

As the Iranian president is scheduled to set out on a state visit to Brazil in two weeks, Israeli President Shimon Peres has urged Brasilia to use its growing clout to curb Iran’s nuclear work.

“There needs to be a voice against destruction and against terror, a clear voice. I know that Brazil rejects threats, destruction, rejects terror, and the clear voice of Brazil has a strong echo in the entire world,” Peres said in a speech to the Brazilian Congress on Tuesday.

He claimed Iran was a ‘global danger’ and called on the South American powerhouse to play a role in international efforts to rein in Iran’s nuclear program.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad plans to visit Brazil on November 23 to improve the cordial relations between Tehran and Brasilia, who share the same stance on peaceful nuclear activities.

“I don’t want to argue about the president of Iran on Brazilian soil, but we think his policies are a global danger,” Peres said.

“I cannot ignore that Iran makes weapons and wants to destroy Israel,” he added.

Iran faces pressure to halt its nuclear enrichment, as world powers claim its program is aimed at building a nuclear bomb.

Along with world powers, Israel — the sole possessor of a nuclear warhead in the Middle East — accuses Iran of efforts to develop a nuclear bomb, maintaining that a ‘nuclear Iran’ is the prime existential threat to its security.

Tehran, however, has denied seeking nuclear weapons and called for the removal of all weapons of mass destruction from across the globe.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has defended Iran’s right to a peaceful nuclear program and opposed imposing sanctions against the country.

In September, he urged the West to stop pushing Iran over its nuclear program and called for dialogue and engagement with Iran to foster peace.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is slated to pay a visit to Brazil late in Autumn, an Iranian official announced on Sunday.

Head of Iran-Brazil Friendship Association Mir Qassem Momeni told that Ahmadinejad’s visit is aimed at a discussion of bilateral and international relations.

The Iranian president’s first visit to the Latin American state had been scheduled to take place before the end of his first term but it was later postponed to another date.

Momeni further said that during the upcoming visit to Brazil by the Iranian president, the two sides will discuss economic and cultural issues, expansion of bilateral ties and cooperation between Tehran and Brasilia at the international and regional levels.

“Development of ties with Brazil could be useful in resolving the existing problems between Latin America and the Middle East, given Brazil’s economic, political and cultural role in Latin America and Iran’s role in Asia,” the Iranian official went on saying.

Elsewhere, Momeni reminded the meeting between President Ahmadinejad and his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on the sidelines of the recent UN General Assembly meeting in New York, and stated, “At the meeting, the two sides discussed a visit to Iran by Lula da Silva.”

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Western powers have used full-fledged psychological tactics as a lever to influence nations against their better judgment.

Ahmadinejad said some regimes, including those in Israel, are using propaganda campaigns and psychological tactics as their prime weapon-of-choice against other countries.

“Once you take away these weapons, there is not much that they can do,” said the Iranian President at a conference on media and psychological war in Tehran on Sunday.

He described the sheer lack of world action against Israeli war crimes in Gaza as a direct result of western propaganda campaign. “The Israelis have killed Palestinians from day one and yet they still come across as innocent victims in the world,” he said.

Regarding the US invasion of Iraq, the president said they (the US) deploy their soldiers from thousand of miles away to Iraq and take control of all of the affairs of the Iraqi nation and then accuse others of meddling in the internal affairs of the country.

Ahmadinejad brushed off the concept of ‘Western-style liberal democracy’, saying that real political oppression can be seen in the US and European societies.

“Claims of pluralist democracy in the West is nothing but a big lie,” said the Iranian President.

The Iranian president said more than one hundred thousand people demonstrated in Pittsburgh in protest of the G20 summit, which did not receive attention in the Western media. But if 2000 people demonstrated in a country, which opposes US policies then the incident would make headlines for a long period.

Ahmadinejad’s remarks were a follow-up to his address to the Islamic Radio and TV Union Assembly last week.

In the meeting, Ahmadinejad said corporate media has turned into a weapon of subterfuge, with the sole aim of advancing the West’s political agenda.

He went on to cite random examples of political bias in US and European media outlets, including the scant media coverage of Israel’s three-week attack on Gaza and the lack of media attention to the brutal murder of Marwa el-Sherbini, a pregnant Egyptian woman who was stabbed to death in a German courtroom.

Ahmadinejad also pointed to the recent media hype over Iran’s June 12 election and its enrichment activity.

Ahead of his speech at the UN General Assembly, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he will present human approaches as a solution to ongoing crises in the world.

“The Iranian nation wants peace and security for all nations,” Ahmadinejad said Tuesday, moments before his departure for New York to address the 64th annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.

“The UN General Assembly will be a proper venue to express views of the Iranian nation and to find solutions to ongoing problems in the world that all countries complain about,” he said.

He, however, added that he is ready to “hear views of others as well.”

The president said he also plans to hold talks with senior officials of certain countries and meet with Iranian elite, university students and professors residing in the United States.

The visit is President Ahmadinejad’s first trip to the West since he took office for a second term after the presidential election in June.

Since 2005, the Iranian president has regularly attended summits at the United Nations headquarters in New York and delivered controversial speeches.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says that Britain’s foreign secretary had predicted the demise of the Iranian state in the aftermath of the June presidential election.

“One of the foreign ministers of friendly countries told us that when I asked the Old Colonialism’s (United Kingdom) foreign secretary why they interfered in Iran’s affairs, he answered that ‘this time the time was up for the Islamic Republic system, and this time we have worked out everything’,” Ahmadinejad said Friday.

“The whole world knows that in Iran, elections are fundamental maters, and, contrary to common democracies of the world, they are not a sham or previously arranged, but, with the presence and supervision of the people,” he added. “It is a necessity for the continuation of the revolutionary and Islamic values.”

“This election shattered the enemies’ plots and revealed their plans, and well illustrated the firmness of the system,” said Ahmadinejad, who is embarking on his second four-year term.

He went on to say that the hope of the enemy “was to direct and steer to victory, [their plans] to finish off Iran, in the same way that they could in other places, through color revolutions, with money, various media and expertise.”

“But, during the election, our nation slapped their faces in such a way, that, after more than two months since the election, they are still dizzy, and have lost their way home,” Ahmadinejad exclaimed.

Iran has blamed foreign elements for the unrest that followed the presidential election in June.

Kazim Seddiqi

As the Iranian president awaits parliamentary approval for his new Cabinet, a newly-appointed interim Friday prayers leader for Tehran urges the lawmakers to clear all the nominees.

“The Majlis (the Iranian Parliament) should swiftly prepare the ground for the new government to be established,” said Hojjatoleslam Kazem Seddiqi, who for the first time led the prayers at Tehran University on Friday.

His remarks come as the president is lobbying members of the Majlis to approve the Cabinet-designates amid debates over the credentials of some of his nominees as well as the three women Ahmadinejad has suggested to take ministerial posts.

Hojjatoleslam Seddiqi, for his part, said before making decisions on a candidate, lawmakers should assess whether the nominees have “good credentials, reputation, and expertise” and if they hold anti-hegemonic views and abide by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

He also called upon Ahmadinejad’s soon-to-be-established government to resolve the country’s “problems” in its first step.

“Now that the administration has Islamic legitimacy after the Leader’s approval and is lawful due to the vote of the people, it must take up the establishment’s duties and resolve the country’s problems,” Seddiqi was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars News Agency.

As the United States moves to choke off Iranian gasoline imports, Iran lays out plans to fight a possible upcoming embargo on vital fuel exports to the country.

Amid controversy surrounding the issue of foreign pressure on the country, the Iranian president said Thursday that his country has taken “all necessary measures” to cope with possible sanctions on its gasoline imports.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad argued that Iran had predicted the “plot” that is taking place in the United States and had taken measures to counter the “ineffective” move.

The remarks come as the US Senate has voted to impose sanctions on companies that ship gasoline and other refined oil products to Iran, in an attempt to force Tehran to halt its uranium enrichment activities.

Some countries in the West, spearheaded by the US and Israel, accuse Iran of pursuing a nuclear weapons program under the guise of peaceful enrichment activities — an allegation dismissed by Tehran and disputed by the UN nuclear watchdog.

Ahmadinejad shrugged off charges that the impact of the proposed fuel sanctions will be significant and said “the Iranian nation no longer worries about threats and sanctions.”

Iran, the world’s fifth-largest crude exporter, possesses one of the world’s largest oil and gas reserves but is forced to import 40 percent of its gasoline to meet its growing demand.

Europe-based trading firms Vitol, Trafigura, Russia’s LUKOIL and Malaysian state oil company Petronas are among the companies that currently export fuel to Iran.

Ahmadinejad said in the Iranian quest to defy US pressure, Tehran will work hard to set up a refinery named the Persian Gulf Star within “the next one or two years” and will thus be able to domestically meet its rising gasoline demand.

He also proposed that Europe and the United States deal with Iran through “interaction and reconciliation instead of increased sanctions”.

Last week, Iranian OPEC Governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi also commented on the issue and predicted that fuel producers would not ignore the fact that Iran enjoys a lucrative market.

“In such circumstances, global oil commodity producers will not easily opt to lose the opportunities provided by the Iranian market,” said Khatibi.

He said the global market has a large number of suppliers and therefore companies currently dealing with Tehran would not accept to ban gasoline exports to the country.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has submitted a list of his proposed new cabinet ministers to the country’s Parliament (Majlis).

The president unveiled his 21-member cabinet late on Wednesday.

Parliament Members will examine the list from August 23 before they hold a confidence vote on August 30.

The list includes three women to head the ministries of health, social welfare and education.

After winning a hotly disputed election in Iran, Ahmadinejad took his oath of office before the Parliament on August 5.

The president’s disputed re-election was met with opposition from other presidential candidates as mass rallies were held across the country with protestors dubbing the polls as rigged.

Vice-Speaker of Iran’s Parliament Mohammad-Reza Bahonar said on Thursday it was likely that several of the ministers would be rejected by the assembly.

“Some of my colleagues and I … believe that close to five ministers proposed by Mr. Ahmadinejad will not receive a vote of confidence,” he said, without giving the names of the ministers.

He also predicted that the rest of the proposed ministers would be approved only by a narrow margin.

The proposed ministers’ list includes:

Minister of Foreign Affairs: Manouchehr Mottaki

Minister of Oil: Masoud Mir Kazemi

Minister of Defense: Brigadier Ahmad Vahidi

Minister of Intelligence: Heyder Moslehi

Minister of Justice: Morteza Bakhtiari

Minister of Interior: Mostafa Mohammad Najjar

Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance: Seyyed Shamseddin Hosseini

Minister of Commerce: Mehdi Ghazanfari

Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance: Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini

Minister of Education: Sousan Keshavarz

Minister of Cooperatives: Mohammad Abbasi

Minister of Welfare and Social Security: Fatemeh Ajorlou

Minister of Industries and Mines: Ali Akbar Mehrabian

Minister of Jihad-e-Agriculture: Sadeq Khalilian

Minister of Communications and Information Technology: Reza Taqipour

Minister of Energy: Mohammad Aliabadi

Minister of Health: Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi

Minister of Housing and Urban Development: Abdolreza
Sheikholeslami

Minister of Labor and Social Affairs: Ali Nikzad

Minister of Science, Research and Technology: Kamran Daneshjoo

Minister of Road and Transportation: Hamid Behbahani

With the end of a deadline set for the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to submit the new Cabinet line-up to Parliament, speculations about the nominees remain.

On Wednesday, Fars News Agency provided a new list of Ahmadinejad’s proposed ministers who will be introduced to Majlis for a vote of confidence. The proposed ministers are:

Kamran Daneshjou — nominated to head the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology — holds a PhD degree in Aerospace Mechanics. He has served as political deputy interior minister, head of the elections headquarters and Tehran governor general.

Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar — nominated to head the Ministry of Interior. Mohammad-Najjar holds a BA in Mechanical Engineering and an MA in Executive Management. He was the defense minister in Ahmadinejad’s first four-year term and has carried out many executive management-related activities in the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).

Manouchehr Mottaki is to remain in his post as the foreign minister. Mottaki got his BA in Social Sciences from Bangalore University in India and his MA in International Relations from Tehran University. He is a former lawmaker and was Iran’s ambassador to Ankara and Tokyo.

Mohammad Hosseini – nominated to lead the Ministry of Culture and the Islamic Guidance. Hosseini completed his PhD study in Religious Jurisprudence at Tehran University. He has served as deputy minister of science, head of Payam-e Nour University, a member of the Parliament and deputy head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB).

Incumbent Mohammad Soleymani or Reza Taqipour will be the minister of Communications and Information Technology.

Taqipour has been working as deputy communications minister, head of the Iranian Aerospace Organization and managing director of Iran’s Telecommunications Industries.

Abdol-Reza Sheikholeslami will be introduced to Majlis as the minister of labor and social affairs. He holds a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in civil engineering. Sheikholeslami has served as governor general of Hormozgan, head of the presidential office and assistance to Ahmadinejad.

Sousan Keshavarz is to head the Education Ministry. Keshavarz, who holds a PhD degree in philosophy, was deputy education minister.

Massoud Mir-Kazemi is Ahmadinejad’s proposed oil minister. He got his PhD in Industries Engineering from Tarbiat Modares University. He was deputy commerce minister and head of Shahed University.

Mohammad Aliabadi has been nominated to be the minister of energy. Aliabadi, who holds a B.S. degree in civil engineering, has served as Tehran’s deputy mayor and vice-president and head of the Physical Education Organization.

Sadeq Khalilian is proposed to head the Commerce Ministry. He got his PhD in Economics from Tarbiat Modares University. Khalilian was deputy agricultural jihad minister and a university professor.

Ali Nikzad is the nominee to head the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development. He holds a Master of Science degree in civil engineering and has served as deputy interior minister, head of the Organization of Municipalities and Rural Administrations (OMRA) and governor general of Ardebil.

Hamid Behbahani is expected to remain in his post as the minister of Roads and Transportation. Behbahani got his Professional PhD in civil engineering.

Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Montazeri is to be introduced as the justice minister.

Ahmad Vahidi is the nominee for the Ministry of Defense. He has served as deputy defense minister and was also the head of the political, defense and security commission of the Expediency Council.

The Iranian president will propose Habibollah Bourbour to lead the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad. Bourbour has previously held the position of deputy interior minister.

On Sunday, Ahmadinejad disclosed the names of six members of the new line-up in a televised address.

He nominated Ali-Akbar Mehrabian as the Minister of Industries and Mines, Seyyed Shamseddin Hosseini as the Minister of Economy, Hojjatoleslam Heidar Moslehi as the Intelligence Minister and Mohammad Abbasi as the Minister of Cooperatives.

He also named Fatemeh Ajorlou as the Minister of Welfare and Social Security and Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi as the Iranian Health Minister.

As the new government begins to take shape, a senior Parliamentarian urges Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to take extra care in his ministerial appointments.

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, Head of the Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, urged the reelected President to appoint “suitable” ministers so as to prevent cabinet reshuffles in the future.

During his first presidential term, Ahmadinejad drew widespread criticism for making frequent cabinet reshuffles with a bevy of lawmakers going as far as to question the legitimacy of his administration.

Boroujerdi said Ahmadinejad should pay special attention to the appointment of the Intelligence, Interior and Defense ministers. “Those who are appointed to these sensitive positions should be proven worthy.”

In a televised address on Sunday, President Ahmadinejad announced his first six proposed cabinet appointments.

The new line-up includes Ali-Akbar Mehrabian as the Minister of Industry and Mines, Seyyed Shamseddin Hosseini as the Minister of Economy, Hojjatoleslam Heidar Moslehi as the country’s Intelligence Minister and Mohammad Abbasi as Iran’s Minister of Cooperatives.

The Iranian President also named Fatemeh Ajorlou as the Minister of Welfare and Social Security and Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi as the Iranian Health Minister.

The public disclosure comes one week after a stern warning by a group of Principlist lawmakers regarding the make-up of the new government.

The group, which consisted of some 200 representatives from the Principlist camp, held an informal meeting with Ahmadinejad on Monday to share their views and expectations.

The lawmakers had initially urged Ahmadinejad to seek consultation and share his cabinet picks in advance.

Gholam Reza Mesbahi-Moqaddam, a prominent Principlist, spoke out against the government’s refusal to consult lawmakers about possible cabinet members.

“If he did so, it would certainly have a positive impact [in the vote of confidence],” he was quoted by the Mehr news agency as saying.

The parliamentarians had also advised the president to make use of older and more seasoned officials in his appointments — a request that goes against Ahmadinejad’s decision to pick cabinet members from the younger generation.

Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani criticized the decision on Monday, arguing that a minister is expected to have enough work experience so that he would not need training at the beginning of his job.

Ahmadinejad came in for strong criticism following a number of controversial political decisions– one of which was the appointment of Esfandyar Rahim-Masha’i, as first vice president.

Rahim-Masha’i sparked an outcry among Iranian officials for saying Iranians are friends with the Israeli people.

He eventually stepped down as vice president after the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Seyyed Ali Khamenei ordered Ahmadinejad to reverse the appointment in a handwritten note.