In June 2005, Iran held Presidential elections in which the conservative mayor of Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, won a surprise victory. Ahmedinejad succeeded Mohammad Khatami, a moderate reformist, who had been President since August 1997. Ahmadinejad ran on a populist platform, pledging to fight poverty and corruption while creating new jobs in the public sector. Ahmedinejad also pledged to share the Irans Oil wealth more broadly and to reduce the nations income gap between rich and poor. Since taking office in August 2005, Ahmedinejad has replaced numerous political appointees. However, as of early December 2005, the Majlis had rejected three of his nominees (Ali Saeedlou, Sadegh Mahsouli, and Mohsen Tasalloti) for oil minister, leaving the countrys all-important oil sector in limbo for the time being (and causing delays to a variety of projects). On December 4, 2005, President Ahmedinejad submitted the name of current caretaker and former deputy oil minister, Kazem Vaziri, to the Majlis. Vaziri was approved on December 12. On January 3, 2006, a shakeup at the oil ministry resulted in five new deputy ministers, including the one in charge of running the national oil company.
In March 2004, President Bush extended sanctions originally imposed in 1995 by President Clinton for another year, citing the "unusual and extraordinary threat" to U.S. national security posed by Iran. The 1995 executive orders prohibit U.S. companies and their foreign subsidiaries from conducting business with Iran, while banning any "contract for the financing of the development of Petroleum resources located in Iran."  In addition, the U.S. Iran-Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA) of 1996 (renewed for 5 more years in July 2001) imposes mandatory and discretionary sanctions on non-U.S. companies investing more than $20 million annually in the Iranian oil and Natural Gas sectors.