Iran President Chooses New Nuclear Chief Negotiator

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Source: Arutz Sheva

Iranian President-elect Hassan Rohani has chosen a new nuclear chief negotiator to represent Iran at talks with the international community, although any nuclear policy is determined strictly by the country's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Mohammed Forouzandeh currently heads a powerful state charitable foundation and serves as a member of the Supreme National Security Council.

He is also former member of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, a history that would serve him well as the head of the Supreme National Security Council – the other role he will take as Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator.

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Rouhani was himself once Iran's leading negotiator with the European Union over the country's secretive nuclear weapons program. A report in 2006 by The Telegraph revealed how the man now hailed by many western commentators as a "moderate" boasted of manipulating European observers during his tenure.

Read more: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/170373#.UfakMY3VArU

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1. Reuters: Iran's Rouhani to pack cabinet with old hands

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/thomson-reuters/130729/irans-rouhani-pack-cabinet-old-hands

Thomson Reuters July 29, 2013 11:34

Iran's Rouhani to pack cabinet with old hands

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian President-elect Hassan Rouhani will pick a cabinet of experienced insiders and will appoint the head of a powerful charity-cum-business foundation as his chief nuclear negotiator, Iranian news agencies said on Monday.

Rouhani, who was elected last month and will be inaugurated on August 4, has pledged a less abrasive stance in nuclear talks with world powers than outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who offended many in the West by denying the Holocaust and calling for Israel to be erased "from the page of time".

The ISNA and Mehr news agencies said Rouhani would nominate Mohammad Forouzandeh as head of the Supreme National Security Council, effectively making him Iran's chief nuclear negotiator.

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Forouzandeh, tipped to head Iran's nuclear negotiating team, is a former Revolutionary Guard, a former defense minister and now a member of Iran's Security Council.

He also heads the Foundation for the Oppressed and Disabled, the biggest of the state charitable organizations which dominate large parts of the economy. It controls companies involved in petrochemicals, shipping, construction and a host of other enterprises and employs tens of thousands of people.

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2. Global Security Newswire: Ex-Iran Defense Chief Tapped to Lead Nuclear Team

http://news.yahoo.com/reports-ex-iran-defense-chief-tapped-lead-nuclear-120205841.html

Reports: Ex-Iran Defense Chief Tapped to Lead Nuclear Team

Global Security Newswire Staff

Iran's state media on Monday said the country's incoming president has tapped a former defense minister to lead talks with six major governments on an intensifying atomic standoff, Reuters reported.

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Obama officials want to discuss the dispute with Rouhani's staff in September, the Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday. Separately, House lawmakers could vote as soon as this week to target Iran with new punitive measures. A high-level legislative insider said House approval of the penalties would "put enormous pressure on the Senate to act as well."

Rouhani apparently pushed successfully in 2003 to halt a clandestine Iranian nuclear arms development effort, a former French envoy to Iran wrote in a New York Timescommentary published on Friday.