Isa Kalantari on Sunday was appointed to lead the Department of Environment, replacing Massoumeh Ebtekar in President Hassan Rouhani’s new Cabinet. The announcement was made on the government’s official portal, Dolat.ir. Kalantari is a veteran politician who served as agriculture minister under the late president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (1989-98) and has been leading efforts to revive Urmia Lake since 2013, serving as director of the Urmia Lake Restoration Program.
