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Salehi Takes Over as Iran's Foreign Minister

   VOA News 18 December 2010
   Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation (front, L)
   arrives  for  former  Foreign  Minister  Manouchehr Mottaki's official
   farewell ceremony in Tehran, 18 Dec 2010

Photo: Reuters

   Ali  Akbar  Salehi,  head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation (front,
   L),  arrives for former Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki's official
   farewell ceremony in Tehran, 18 Dec 2010

   Iran's  top  nuclear  official  has  officially  taken over as the new
   interim  foreign minister after his predecessor was fired by President
   Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
   Iranian  state  television  reports  Ali  Akbar Salehi was inaugurated
   Saturday at a ceremony at the foreign ministry.  The man he replaced,
   Manouchehr Mottaki, was not present.
   Mottaki  served  as  foreign  minister  from  2005  until  his  sudden
   dismissal  on  Monday.  President Ahmadinejad gave no explanation for
   the  firing,  though  many  experts  have  speculated  it  was  due to
   political differences.
   Salehi  has  also  served  as  Iran's  ambassador to the International
   Atomic  Energy  Agency.   He takes over as Iran prepares for nuclear
   talks  in January with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security
   Council and Germany, a group known as the P5+1.
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