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Bloomberg
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani won lawmakers’ approval for 16 of his 17 ministerial nominees, in an overwhelming show of support for his policies. Parliament on Sunday voted to reappoint Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, top Rouhani allies during his first term. The only candidate to lose a vote of confidence was Energy Ministry nominee Habibollah Bitaraf.
Rouhani, who was sworn in for a second term on August 5, wants to use this tenure to build on Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and boost the economy. The 68-year-old moderate cleric won another four years as president in May on a pledge to press ahead with his policy of easing Iran’s political isolation to achieve further sanctions relief. That campaign has run up against President Donald Trump’s opposition to the accord. Trump has threatened to withdraw from the 2015 agreement that curbed Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief, and since the start of his term, the US has applied new sanctions against Iran’s ballistic missile program and its elite Revolutionary Guards. Rouhani needs to appoint a caretaker for the Energy Ministry and has three months to
nominate a new minister.