Tehran, Iran (AP) – The Iranian President appointed a new director of the country’s nuclear department on Sunday, state television reported, and replaced the country’s most prominent nuclear scientist with a UN-sanctioned minister who has no experience in nuclear energy, but links to the Ministry of Defense.
The newly elected Iranian hard-line president Ebrahim Raisi has appointed Mohammad Eslami, a 64-year-old civil engineer who previously oversaw the country’s road network, to head Iran’s civil nuclear program and serve as one of several vice-presidents. He succeeds Ali Akbar Salehi, a US-trained scientist who played a key role in the years of intense international diplomacy that led to Tehran’s groundbreaking nuclear deal with world powers in 2015.
The deal restricted Iran’s nuclear activities in return for a lifting of the sanctions, but then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the deal and re-imposed devastating sanctions. In response, Iran has gradually and publicly released all restrictions on its low-enriched uranium stocks.
In 2008, when Eslami was head of the Iranian Defense Industry Training and Research Institute, the United Nations sanctioned him for “involvement in, direct connection with, or support for the proliferation of sensitive Iranian nuclear activities or the development of delivery systems for nuclear weapons.” . “
The UN linked the black list with his “involvement in the procurement of prohibited objects, goods, equipment, materials and technologies” without going into detail.
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During the tenure of the more moderate former President Hassan Rouhani, Eslami was Minister of Transport and Urban Development. Before moving to the cabinet in 2018, he worked for years in the Iranian military industry, most recently as Deputy Minister of Defense for Research and Industry.
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi speaks to parliament in the capital Tehran on August 21, 2021 to defend his cabinet election. (Atta Kenare / AFP)
He has degrees in civil engineering from Detroit University of Michigan and the University of Toledo, Ohio. Iranian media did not cover the details of Eslami’s nuclear experience, but his technical background speaks to the country’s renewed focus on building power plants at a time when the country was plagued by constant power outages.
Iran is building two nuclear power plants to supplement its only operating 1,000 megawatt reactor in the southern port city of Bushehr, which went online in 2011 with Russian help. As part of its long-term energy plan, Iran aims to achieve 20,000 megawatt nuclear capacity.
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