Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s Vice President for strategic affairs has again resigned amid fierce pushback from hardline opponents.
The former Foreign Minister and face of reformist-backed negotiations with global powers that led to Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal confirmed the move in an online post.
Zarif divulged that he was “advised” by Judiciary Chief, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei to resign and go back to a university teaching job “to prevent further pressure on the government” in a tumultuous period for the country.
He was under pressure from hardline factions to resign for months, based on a 2022 law that forbids nationals with dual citizenship or those with dual-national first-degree family members from assuming political office.
Zarif – who resigned before, in August, only to return to government shortly after – has faced incessant criticism for his American-born children allegedly being dual Iranian-US citizens.
Zarif’s two children are natural-born United States citizens.
His critics, many of them opponents of talks with the US over its nuclear programme, have claimed his appointment breaches a 2022 law that debars individuals with ties to the west from holding senior positions.
The nationality of his children, dating to his period as a diplomat based in the US, was one reason why the Vice President tried to step down previously shortly after joining Pezeshkian’s administration in August 2024.
Zarif expressed his resentment at his treatment.
He said that although he faced the most ridiculous insults, slanders and threats against himself and his family in the past six months, and even within the government, “I spent the most bitter 40 years of service, I persevered in the hope of serving.”
“I have not been and will not be one to run away from hardships and difficulties in the path of serving this land and country, and in the past 40 or so years, I have endured so many insults and slanders for the small role I have played in advancing national interests, from ending the Iran-Iraq war to finalising the nuclear file, and I have held my breath to prevent the interests of the country from being damaged by a flood of lies and distortions.
“I hope that by stepping aside, the excuses for obstructing the will of the people and the success of the government will be removed.”
Mohammad Javad Zarif
Resignation Follows Economy Minister’s Impeachment
Zarif’s departure, a blow to the still relatively new government of President Masoud Pezeshkian, follows the impeachment of Economy Minister, Abdolnaser Hemmati.
Hemmati, was impeached as economy minister by hardline and conservative lawmakers who have dominated Iran’s parliament for the past five years via low-turnout elections.
Opponents painted the former central bank chief and failed presidential candidate as a “dangerous” influence on the Iranian economy and accused him of intentionally weakening the national currency to attract short-term liquidity to plug massive budget deficits.
Hemmati, who denied the accusations and said he was only fighting a multilayered foreign currency system that has bred corruption for many years, was unable to convince Members of Parliament that sacking him just six months into the new administration would adversely affect the ailing Iranian economy.
Opponents of Hemmati, led by the conservative Front of Islamic Revolution Stability, admit his dismissal is part of a wider campaign against the government, including Hemmati’s efforts to reconnect the Iranian economy to the west by removing Iran from the FATF blacklist.
The double removals pushed the Iranian stock market into a further tailspin as Iranian businesses sensed that the political path to reopening commerce with the west was fast being shut down by conservatives that never reconciled themselves to Pezeshkian’s victory.
READ ALSO: President Mahama Pushes for Economic Reset and Sustainable Growth
