Ahmadinejad says will name 3 women as ministers
Iranian president says he plans to propose at least three women in next cabinet; Mehr news agency says trial session of 'third group of those accused of being involved in post-election unrest started today'; adds no prominent moderate politicians among those charged in current round; chief nuclear negotiator Jalili set to be named new FM
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday he would propose at least three women as ministers in his next cabinet following June's disputed presidential election.
It would be the first time a woman would hold such a position in the conservative Islamic Republic.
The semi-official Mehr news agency quoted a senior Iranian politician as saying said that Ahmadinejad was expected to nominate chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili as foreign minister in his new cabinet.
Hossein Sobhaninia, deputy head of parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, also said Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar and Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli were expected to swap jobs. The current foreign minister is Manouchehr Mottaki.
Earlier Sunday, Mehr news reported that Iran put more people on trial for their involvement in the unrest that erupted after the country's disputed June presidential election.
The June 12 vote has plunged the Islamic state into its biggest internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution and has exposed deepening divisions in its ruling elite.
Iran has held two mass trials for more than 100 moderates for various charges including acting against national security, punishable by death under Iran's Islamic law.
A French woman and two Iranians working for the British and French embassies in Tehran have also been tried.
Mehr said no prominent moderate politicians were among those on trial today.
"The trial session of the third group of those accused of being involved in post-election unrest started today," it said.
Moderate defeated presidential candidates Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi say the vote was rigged to secure the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was sworn in on Aug. 5.
The authorities deny the charge, saying it was the "healthiest" vote the country has had in the past three decades.
Iranian media said on Saturday 25 people were going to be tried on Sunday.
Rights groups say hundreds of people, including senior pro- reform politicians, journalists, activists and lawyers, have been detained in Iran since the election. Many of them are still in jail.
