Iran's new president presented his cabinet to parliament on Sunday for a vote of confidence, state media reported, proposing seasoned pragmatic diplomat Abbas Araqchi as foreign minister at a time of heightened regional tensions.

President Masoud Pezeshkian is shaping his cabinet at a time of an increased risk of escalation of the conflict in Gaza into a broader regional war, after the recent killings of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas' leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran and of Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut drew threats of retaliation against Israel.

Following the death of hardline President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in May, Pezeshkian won a snap election last month by promising to improve ties with the world, promoting a pragmatic foreign policy, and to ease social restrictions at home.

Pezeshkian's proposed cabinet lineup requires lawmakers' approval and parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said that parliamentary commissions will start reviewing his candidates on Monday.

Araqchi, 61, who was Iran's ambassador to several countries, including Japan, played a key role in negotiating Tehran's 2015 nuclear agreement with six world powers, which then-U.S. President Donald Trump exited in 2018 and re-imposed sanctions on Iran.

Araqchi later led Iran's negotiators during multilateral efforts - ultimately unsuccessful - to revive the pact via indirect diplomacy with Washington before he was replaced by hardline Ali Bagheri Kani in 2021.

The president's powers are limited in the Islamic Republic by those of the Supreme Leader, who is commander-in-chief of the armed forces, appoints the head of the judiciary and has the last say on major policies.

Tensions between Iran and the West have increased over Tehran's fast-advancing nuclear programme and its threats to "harshly punish" Israel over the assassination of Haniyeh.

Tehran and Hamas accuse Israel of carrying it out, though it has not claimed or denied responsibility for the killing.

Separately, Iran's president nominated Mohsen Paknezhad as oil minister, who has served as deputy oil minister overseeing hydrocarbon resources between 2018 and 2021.

Pezeshkian has also nominated Farzaneh Sadeq as the road and transportation minister. If approved by the parliament, she would become only the second woman cabinet minister in the Islamic Republic's history.

The first one was appointed in 2009 by hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who was president at the time.

Under the president's proposed lineup Raisi's Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib would keep his position in the new cabinet.

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Jordan will not be a battlefield for Iran or Israel, foreign minister warns

Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on Saturday that the kingdom would not be a battlefield for Iran or Israel, as the region braces for a possible new wave of attacks by Tehran and its allies following last week's killing of senior members of militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

"We will not be a battlefield for Iran or Israel. We informed the Iranians and the Israelis that we will not allow anyone to violate our airspace and risk the safety of our citizens," the Jordanian foreign minister said in an interview with Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV.

"We will intercept anything that passes through our airspace or think that it constitutes a threat to us or our citizens."

In April, Jordan, which lies between Iran and Israel, said it intercepted flying objects that entered its airspace as Tehran launched explosive drones and fired missiles at Israel in the first direct retaliatory attack of its kind.

After that attack, which was launched in retaliation for a suspected Israeli strike on Iran's embassy compound in Syria, Jordanian, Iraqi and Turkish officials each said Iran had provided them with some early warning of its action.

Iran has repeatedly vowed to "punish" Israel since the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Iran-backed Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Tehran on July 31. Iran and Hamas blamed Israel for the killing.

Israel has not claimed or denied responsibility for the killing, which has fuelled concerns that the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip could spill into a wider Middle East conflict.

Those concerns have also been stoked by the killing of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah's top military commander, Fuad Shukr, in an Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburbs hours before the assassination of Haniyeh.

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