TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s newly elected president has reappointed a U.S.-trained official who came under U.N. sanctions 16 years ago as head of the country’s nuclear agency, state television reported Saturday.
Mohammad Eslami, 67, will continue his work as head of Iran’s civilian nuclear program and serve as one of several vice presidents. Eslami’s reappointment by President Masoud Pezeshkian comes as Iran remains under heavy Western sanctions following Iran’s nuclear program. Failure of the 2015 agreement which restricted Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for easing sanctions.
Pezeshkian had declared during his presidential campaign that he would try to revive the nuclear agreement.
The United Nations imposed sanctions on Eslami in 2008 for “involving, directly associating with, or supporting the proliferation of Iran’s sensitive nuclear activities or the development of nuclear weapon delivery systems” when he was head of Iran’s Defense Industrial Training and Research Institute.
He was first appointed head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency by the late President Ebrahim Raisi in 2021. Previously, Eslami served as Minister of Transport and Urban Development from 2018, during the era of moderate former President Hassan Rouhani.
He has many years of experience in the Iranian arms industry, most recently as Deputy Minister of Defense with responsibility for research and industry.
Eslami holds degrees in civil engineering from the University of Michigan in Detroit and the University of Toledo, Ohio.
The United States, France, Britain and Germany accused Iran of expanding its nuclear activities far beyond the limits it had agreed to in the 2015 agreement and of not cooperating with the UN nuclear regulatory authoritythe International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran accused the US and its allies of continuing to apply economic sanctions that were supposed to be lifted under the agreement. Iran stressed that its nuclear program was for peaceful purposes and was aimed at generating electricity and producing radioisotopes to treat cancer patients. In addition, the country was under constant supervision of the IAEA.
Iran is currently building two nuclear power plants to complement its only operating 1,000-megawatt reactor in the southern port city of Bushehr, which came online with Russian help in 2011. As part of its long-term energy plan, Iran aims to achieve a nuclear power capacity of 20,000 megawatts.
In recent months, there have been power outages across the country.
