Iran appoints first Baluch governor in restive Sistan-Baluchistan province

Iran’s government on Wednesday appointed the first governor from the Baluch minority in the country’s restive southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan.

“Mansour Bijar was chosen as the governor of Sistan-Baluchistan,” government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said after a cabinet meeting.

Bijar, 50, hails from the Baluch community, a mainly Sunni Muslim ethnic group in a Shia-majority country.

His appointment follows an attack in Sistan-Baluchistan that killed at least 10 policemen, later claimed by the militant group Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice).

Sistan-Baluchistan straddles the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, and is one of the Islamic republic’s most impoverished provinces.

It has long been a flashpoint for cross-border attacks by separatists and Sunni extremists, and clashes between security forces and armed groups are common.

Jaish al-Adl, which was formed in 2012 by Baluch separatists, is considered a “terrorist organisation” by both Iran and the United States.

In September, Iran appointed the first Sunni governor for Kurdistan province since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

In August, President Masoud Pezeshkian named Abdolkarim Hosseinzadeh, a politician from the Sunni minority, as his vice president for rural development.

Lawmakers later blocked his appointment, with one of them, Mehrdad Lahouti, saying parliament had voted in favour of keeping Hosseinzadeh in the legislature due to “capabilities and experience”.

But they agreed to his resignation on Wednesday in a subsequent vote.

The parliament did not provide further details on the reason for the change.

Also last week, the government named Mohammad Reza Mavalizadeh as the first Arab governor for southwestern Khuzestan province, which has a large Arab minority.

Sunnis account for about 10 per cent of Iran’s population. Shia Islam is the official state religion.