TEHRAN – In a cabinet approval on Monday, Ali Bagheri Kani was appointed as caretaker foreign minister following the tragic death of Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian in a helicopter crash along with President Ebrahim Raisi on Sunday afternoon.

Bagheri Kani, 56, was serving as Amir Abdollahian’s deputy for political affairs. He acted as Iran’s chief negotiator for reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, though the talks came to a halt in September 2022.

He was also part of the Iranian negotiating team when Saeed Jalili, then secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, was in charge of handling the nuclear talks with the European trio - Germany, Britain and France – and the United States during the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.