Ramin Mehmanparast, the spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, has tendered his resignation after registering to run in the presidential race.
Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi accepted Mehmanparast’s resignation and announced that Abbas Araghchi, the head of the ministry’s Asia and Pacific department, will now act as spokesman for the ministry.
Ramin Mehmanparast entered himself as a candidate for the presidency on the last day of registration, and in his letter to Salehi he announced that the reason for his resignation was to “avoid any form of suspicion about the use of government resources” for his campaign.
Abbas Araghchi is one of the ministry diplomats who acts as a spokesperson for the nuclear-negotiation delegation headed by Saeed Jalili, who has also registered as a presidential candidate.
Araghchi has formerly served as Iran’s ambassador to Japan, Finland and Estonia.
