TEHRAN – In a decree on Thursday, President Masoud Pezeshkian appointed Mohammad Javad Zarif as his deputy for strategic affairs and the chief of the Presidential Center for Strategic Studies.

Zarif, 64, was foreign minister from 2013 to 2021 under President Hassan Rouhani.

He was Iran’s chief negotiator in the nuclear talks that led to the 2015 nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The agreement, endorsed by the UN Security Council Resolution 2231, was ditched by former U.S. President Donald Trump as he withdrew the U.S., the main party to the agreement, from the deal.

Zarif also served as Iran’s representative at the United Nations during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami.

In a separate decree on Thursday, Pezeshkian, who took oath office in the Parliament on Tuesday, also chose Mohammad Jafar Qaem Panah as his deputy for executive affairs and chief of the presidential chief of staff.

An optometrist, Qaem Panah had worked with President Pezeshkian when he was the chancellor of Tabriz University and health minister in the Khatami government.