Iran on Sunday named English-speaking economist Mohammad Khazai who has worked at the World Bank to replace its long-serving ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammad Javad Zarif. "Mr Zarif's replacement will continue to follow the principles of the policies of the Islamic republic," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters.
Khazai, born in 1953, served as an MP between 1980 and 1988 and has also worked as an advisor to the executive council of the World Bank.
He was appointed deputy economy minister in charge of investment in 2002 under the reformist president Mohammad Khatami and, unlike many ministers of similar rank, held on to his post when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power.
Zarif, who spent much of his life in the United States and received his university education in San Francisco and Denver, has served as Iran's ambassador to the United Nations since August 2002.
A fluent English speaker, he has won respect for his articulate defence of Iran's policy at the United Nations during the current nuclear crisis and has been the subject of several admiring profiles in the US media. He attracted attention in March by travelling to Washington to hold a rare meeting with top US lawmakers.