The Iranian President-elect Masoud Pezeshkian issued a presidential decree, his first since winning the presidential elections, in which he appointed former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as head of the Strategic Council for the transitional period of the new government. Zarif said in a press statement, 'Five people have been appointed as members of the committees of the new government's strategic council.' According to press reports, the mission of this council will be to select candidates to fill ministerial and governmental positions in the Pezeshkian government. Zarif added, "No candidate has been reviewed for any position, including the first vice president of Iran." He strongly denied the rumor that figures such as the reformist former President Mohammad Khatami exerted pressure on this process." Zarif revealed that a meeting will be held tomorrow, Saturday, for the heads of committees in the strategic council of the new government to determine the tasks of selecting candidates for governmen t positions, indicating that 'the process of examining candidates has not yet begun and will be at the end of this month of July.' Source: National Iraqi News Agency