“God willing, his successor in this organisation will soon be known,” Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, chief of staff of Ahmadinejad’s office, told the ISNA news agency.
Iran’s parliament on Sunday endorsed Salehi as the Islamic republic’s foreign minister.
Salehi, 61, who is also a vice president of the Islamic republic, has led the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran since July 2009.
He has been a driving force behind Iran’s nuclear programme. It has been during his tenure that Iran brought its first nuclear power plant on line and started higher-level uranium enrichment amid Western concerns.
Iranian media have cited Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, as well as Salehi’s deputy Mohammad Ahmadian and nuclear research chief Mohammad Ghanadi as possible successors.
Former energy minister Parviz Fattah and current minister of higher education Kamran Daneshjoo, an ally of the president, have also been named as potential candidates.
