President Ebrahim Raisi Retains Mohammad Eslami as Head of Atomic Energy Organization

The President of Iran has issued a decree retaining Mohammad Eslami in the position of "Vice President and Head of the Atomic Energy Organization." Masoud Pezeshkian expressed hope in his appointment decree on Saturday, August 20, that the goals of the vision document and the general policies approved by Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, would be realized. The retention of 67-year-old Mohammad Eslami as the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization comes while he has been on the UN sanctions list for 16 years due to military-related activities linked to the nuclear program. Ebrahim Raisi appointed Mr. Eslami, who has years of experience as Deputy for Industrial and Research Affairs at Iran's Ministry of Defense, as the head of the Atomic Energy Organization in 2021. Mohammad Eslami served as Minister of Roads and Urban Development from 2018 to 2021 in Hassan Rouhani's second government, succeeding Abbas Akhoundi. The Wall Street Journal reported that Iran is conducting advanced nuclear research. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly criticized the Islamic Republic during Mr. Eslami's presidency of the Atomic Energy Organization for its lack of cooperation regarding the origin of uranium particles found at undeclared sites in Iran, expulsion of agency inspectors, cutting off the agency's access to surveillance camera footage at Iranian nuclear sites, 60% uranium enrichment, and the production of metallic uranium applicable in nuclear bomb construction. Iran, claiming peaceful use of its nuclear program, particularly for nuclear electricity generation, has been embroiled in UN and Western sanctions for years and has faced unilateral US sanctions since 2018. Meanwhile, Iran has only launched the Bushehr nuclear power plant during this time, which contributes only 1% to the country's electricity production. Mr. Eslami's appointment as a sanctioned individual by the UN and with a military background to head the Atomic Energy Organization comes as Masoud Pezeshkian has repeatedly emphasized during his electoral campaign the need for understanding with the West to revive the JCPOA and lift sanctions. Mr. Pezeshkian referred in Mr. Eslami's appointment decree to the "goals of the vision document and the general policies approved by Ali Khamenei," which apparently refers to the Islamic Republic's goal of increasing nuclear electricity production capacity to 20,000 megawatts, a topic that has effectively remained dormant for the past two decades. Mr. Eslami, born in 1956 in Isfahan, holds a master's degree in civil engineering from the University of Detroit, Michigan, and the University of Toledo, Ohio, in the USA. Before him, Ali Akbar Salehi, a graduate of the American University of Beirut and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in nuclear physics and nuclear engineering, held this position, and before Mr. Salehi, the presidency of this organization was held by Fereydoun Abbasi, who has a PhD in nuclear physics from Shahid Beheshti University.