Iran's Vice-President for Strategic Affairs Javad Zarif announced his resignation on Monday in another setback for reformists, seven months after moderate President Masoud Pezeshkian took office.
It followed the dismissal on Sunday of Iran's economy minister Abdolnaser Hemmati by the country's parliament, which is dominated by hardliners, amid rising inflation and a falling currency. Mr Hemmati is a former central bank chief and another moderate.
Mr Zarif wrote on social media platform X that he would be returning to teaching at a university and that he hoped his resignation would allow Mr Pezeshkian to advance his agenda. “I hope that by stepping aside, the excuses for obstructing the will of the people and the success of the government will be removed,” Mr Zarif said.
“I have held my breath to prevent the interests of the country from being damaged by a flood of lies and distortions,” he wrote, referring to personal attacks against him that he said were holding up government work.
Mr Zarif previously stepped down in August last year after only about two weeks in office, citing differences with Mr Pezeshkian over the cabinet, but he later returned to the job.
Official news agency IRNA said Mr Zarif “resigned on the advice from the head of the judiciary to help relieve pressure on the administration of President Masoud Pezeshkian”. Mr Pezeshkian has not yet officially commented.
Mr Zarif is a former foreign minister and was the architect of Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has declared his opposition to holding further talks with the US, calling discussions “neither wise, nor intelligent, nor honourable”.
Mr Pezeshkian told parliament on Sunday that he had initially backed engaging in talks with the US but would now defer to the supreme leader’s position. “I personally believe in dialogue, and I will continue to do so,” he said. “However, we will stand by the position the supreme leader has taken regarding America until the end.”
Mr Zarif had also been under pressure from conservative politicians who argued his appointment was illegal because his children hold US citizenship.
On Sunday, economy and finance minister Mr Hemmati was removed by parliament in a vote of confidence, with 182 of 273 MPs in favour of his dismissal. Mr Pezeshkian had defended his minister, saying “the economic problems of today's society are not related to one person”.
But politicians took turns censuring Mr Hemmati, blaming him for Iran's economic woes. “People cannot tolerate the new wave of inflation; the rise in the price of foreign currency and other goods must be controlled,” said one parliamentarian, Ruhollah Motefakker-Azad.
Mr Pezeshkian took office last July with the ambition of reviving the Iranian economy and ending some western-imposed sanctions.
But the depreciation of the Iranian rial has only intensified, especially since the fall in December of Iran ally Bashar Al Assad in Syria.
Since 2019, inflation in Iran has been above 30 per cent annually, according to figures from the World Bank.
Decades of US-led sanctions imposed over Iran's nuclear programme have battered the economy. Adding further weight, US President Donald Trump recently revived a policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran by tightening sanctions.
