TEHRAN - Iran's Interim President Mohammad Mokhber has appointed Ali Bagheri Kani as the country's caretaker foreign minister, the official news agency IRNA reported on Wednesday.

Over the past three years, Bagheri Kani has also served as Iran's chief negotiator in the talks aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal

Bagheri Kani previously served as deputy foreign minister for political affairs. His appointment follows the deaths of Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, President Ebrahim Raisi, and other senior officials in a helicopter crash in the northwestern province of East Azarbaijan on Sunday, the report said.

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In his decree, Mokhber wished success for Bagheri Kani in fulfilling his responsibilities of the new post, calling for the continuation of the Foreign Ministry's activities, particularly those pertaining to exercising an active diplomacy on the Palestine issue and strengthening the resistance axis within the framework of the declared documents and principles.

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Over the past three years, Bagheri Kani has also served as Iran's chief negotiator in the talks aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, between Tehran and world powers that started in April 2021 in Austria's capital Vienna.