Salehi: I Learned via Text Message That I Had Been Appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs

Ali Akbar Salehi, in an interview with an Iranian monthly magazine, described how he became the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government, stating that while preparing for a speech, he received a text message announcing his appointment as 'Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs.' Following the dismissal of Manouchehr Mottaki from the Foreign Ministry on December 13, 2010, while he was on a trip to Senegal, Salehi was introduced as the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs while retaining his position as head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. In the interview with the 'Diyar' magazine, which was partially reported by the ISNA news agency on Thursday, March 10, he explained that his involvement in the Foreign Ministry was not solely related to Mottaki's dismissal. 'In 2005, at the beginning of Ahmadinejad's first term, when I had just arrived in Jeddah, Ahmadinejad contacted me and said he had chosen me for either the Foreign Ministry or the Ministry of Science. I returned to Iran and had several meetings until he finally agreed that I would return to Jeddah.' Salehi, who served for four years as Deputy Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Jeddah, was appointed head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran in 2009. However, as he stated in this interview, less than a year into his tenure, Ahmadinejad once again asked him to move to the Foreign Ministry while 'Manouchehr Mottaki was still the Foreign Minister.' He stated that he told the Iranian president, 'The organization’s work has just reached an acceptable level, and the completion of the Bushehr power plant and the 20 percent fuel issue are of great importance. Let me continue on this path.' According to Salehi, the 'issue of insistence and denial' lasted for six months 'until one day I went to Sharif University for a speech in honor of Dr. Shahriari. While I was preparing for the speech, I received a text message that surprised me. The message stated, 'Ali Akbar Salehi has been appointed as Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs.' Salehi added, 'I really didn’t know what to say. I hadn’t given a definitive answer to accept the responsibility, but in any case, Ahmadinejad had made the decision and implemented it. I was, in fact, faced with a fait accompli.' This Iranian official was introduced to the Islamic Consultative Assembly as the proposed candidate for the Foreign Ministry on January 23, 2011, and received a vote of confidence on February 1. He remained as Iran's Foreign Minister until 2013 and later resumed his role as head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran during Hassan Rouhani's administration. Salehi was a key member of the Iranian negotiation team in talks with six world powers to resolve the Islamic Republic's nuclear program crisis, which led to the July 2015 Vienna Agreement or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).