Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian appointed Mohammad-Reza Aref as his first vice president, IRNA reported.
Pezeshkian made the appointment in a decree following his official endorsement as Iran's ninth president earlier in the day by Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
In his decree, Iran's president called on Aref to run the cabinet meetings, ensure coordination among ministers and the country's other executive officials, and be in charge of communicating the cabinet's approvals.
A current member of Iran's Expediency Discernment Council, Aref, a reformist politician born in December 1951, served as Iran's first vice president from 2001 to 2005 under former President Mohammad Khatami.
He served as the head of the Ministry of Post, Telegraph and Telephone, currently known as the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, from 1997 to 2000 and was appointed as the head of the country's Management and Planning Organization in the same year during Khatami's first four-year term.
He also served as a lawmaker in the 10th Iranian parliament. Aref has a PhD in electrical and communication engineering from Stanford University.
Aref ran for president in 2013 but dropped out of the race in favor of Hassan Rouhani, who was elected president for two consecutive terms.
