Mir-Hossein Mousavi nominated Mousavi as his foreign minister, however Banisadr opposed the nomination and Mousavi was not appointed. On 15 August 1981, as part of the restructuring of the government in Rajai's cabinet, Mousavi was appointed foreign minister. He held the post until 15 December 1981, when he received the higher appointment of prime minister. In August 1981, President Mohammad-Ali Rajai and Prime Minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar were assassinated in an explosion. Ali Khamenei was then elected as the third president of Iran in the Iranian presidential election, October 1981. He put forward Ali Akbar Velayati as his prime minister, but the Iranian
Mir-Hossein Mousavi sphere. When Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, died in 1989, Mousavi was no longer welcome in the government. It was the start of 20 years of an almost total absence from public life for Mousavi, which many considered as a sign of his disapproval of the established government, though he did sit on two high-level government councils. In 1989, Ali Khamenei named him as a member of the Expediency Discernment Council, his membership of which still continues. Mousavi has been a member of the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution since 1996. He was also the political adviser of