Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has nominated a veteran diplomat who was heavily involved in the negotiations for the now-defunct 2015 Iran nuclear deal to serve as his foreign minister, even as the new administration faces growing domestic pressure to respond to a suspected Israeli strike that killed a top Palestinian Hamas leader in the heart of Tehran last month.

Revealing his proposed new Cabinet Sunday, Mr. Pezeshkian tapped Abbas Araghchi, a deputy foreign minister under former reformist President Hassan Rouhani, as his foreign minister.

The new president, who took office in a special election when hard-line predecessor Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister were killed in a helicopter crash earlier this summer, has said he hopes to revive the nuclear deal with the U.S. and other world powers as a way to ease crushing economic sanctions re-imposed when President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the deal in 2018.

---

---

Mr. Araghchi, 61, was a lead negotiator on nuclear issues from 2013 to 2021, and, as official spokesman for the Foreign Ministry for much of that time, a frequent target of criticism from conservative Iranian factions who opposed the accord which was designed to put strict limits on the country’s suspect nuclear programs.

Mr. Pezeshkian’s Cabinet picks were presented to the Islamic Consultative Assembly, but it is not clear if all the selections will go through. Hard-liners still dominate the national parliament and have rejected presidential nominations in the past.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that lawmakers are expected to begin vetting the nominees Monday and hold confirmation votes starting at the end of the week.

Mr. Pezeshkian’s presidential honeymoon has already been cut short by the July 31 assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, an operation widely believed to have been carried out by Israel.

Ironically, the longtime leader of the Palestinian militant group was in Tehran to attend Mr. Pezeshkian’s swearing-in ceremony.

Mr. Araghchi himself on social media denounced the assassination as a “terrorist attack by Israel,” adding, “The Israeli occupying regime will pay a heavy price, and it will not achieve its ominous goal of putting obstacles in the path of Iran’s new government at the outset of its endeavor.”

Israel has beefed up its defenses and the Biden administration has sent new military assets into the region, bracing for a possible retaliatory attack by Iran and its allied forces around the region.

Despite his electoral victory, Mr. Pezeshkian holds only limited powers in Iran’s theocratic system. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has vowed to avenge the Haniyeh killing, and a top aide issued another threat over the weekend that a strike may be in the offing.

Ali Shamkhani, former head of Iran’s National Security Council and an adviser to the ayatollah, said Saturday on the social media site X that Iran had completed the “legal, diplomatic, and media” preparations to carry out “severe and crushing” retaliation against Israel.

The U.S. and regional powers have launched a diplomatic blitz to try to limit Iran’s response and avoid a regional war. There are fears that Iranian-linked forces such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the Houthi rebels of Yemen, and Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria could be part of the response.

Mr. Pezeshkian broke ground with another of his Cabinet picks Sunday, nominating Farzaneh Sadegh to be minister for roads and housing. She would be only the second female Cabinet official in the 45 years since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.