(Adnkronos) – Iran’s Vice President for Strategic Affairs, Mohammad Javad Zarif, has announced his resignation. He stepped down less than seven months after his appointment, saying he had made the decision on the ‘advice’ of the head of the judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, and to ease pressure on the government of President Masoud Pezeshkian, reports the official Iranian agency Irna, which quotes sources according to whom Zarif submitted his resignation to the president last night, without for now there are official announcements from Pezeshkian and it is not clear whether the resignation has been formally accepted.
On X Zarif explained that Mohseni Ejei suggested that he return to dedicate himself to the academic field and that he had “immediately” accepted because he has “always” wanted to be “helpful and not a burden”. “I hope that by stepping aside, the pretexts for hindering the will of the people and the success of the government will fall,” he added, stating that in recent months he has suffered “ridiculous insults, slander, threats”, even against his family.
“I have never been a person who shies away from difficulties – he continued – in the last 40 years I have endured so many insults for the small role I have had in promoting national interests, from the end of the imposed war to the nuclear dossier”.
Zarif, a charismatic Iranian negotiator, was Iran’s foreign minister from 2013 to 2021 and one of the protagonists of the negotiations for the 2015 international agreement on the Iranian nuclear program from which the first Trump administration withdrew in 2018. Zarif supported Pezeshkian’s candidacy in the 2024 elections and last August he was chosen as vice president for Strategic Affairs.
The Irna agency recalls that he ended up in the crosshairs of some parliamentarians who challenge his position, stating that at least one of Zarif’s children has US citizenship and that the former head of diplomacy cannot hold sensitive positions. The news of his resignation comes after the Tehran Parliament yesterday voted to remove Economy Minister Abdolnaser Hemmati from office.
