Hassan Rouhani has so far neither accepted or rejected Javad Zarif’s resignation from the Iranian government

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, is under pressure to reject the resignation of the foreign minister Javad Zarif, who had announced his departure on Monday with a condemnation of what he described as the “deadly poison” of infighting among Iran’s parties and factions.

News of the veteran diplomat’s resignation, which he broke in an Instagram post on Monday night, had prompted a fall in the Iranian stock exchange and a rearguard action by reformists, who had called on Rouhani, to refuse to accept it.

Rouhani’s chief of staff, Mahmoud Vaezi, had earlier tweeted to strongly deny reports that Zarif’s resignation had been accepted by the president. He added later on Instagram: “In the view of Dr Rouhani, the Islamic Republic of Iran has only one foreign policy and one foreign minister.”

A Instagram post from Rouhani’s supporters with the hashtag #Zarif-is-staying was however wrongly cited in reports as coming from the president himself. Rouhani has neither accepted or rejected his moderate ally’s resignation.

Zarif’s surprise move came as the landmark nuclear deal he negotiated with world powers stands on the verge of collapse after the withdrawal of the US.

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In an interview on Tuesday, published by the Jomhuri Eslami newspaper, Zarif said infighting was a barrier to formulating foreign policy, suggesting he may have resigned over pressure from hardline elements opposed to his role in negotiating the 2015 agreement.

“We first have to remove our foreign policy from the issue of party and factional fighting,” Zarif said. “The deadly poison for foreign policy is for foreign policy to become an issue of party and factional fighting.”

A majority of Iranian parliamentarians signed a petition calling for him to stay in office, according to a spokesman for parliament’s national security and foreign policy commission.

There were also reports that Iranian diplomats internationally were threatening to resign in solidarity with Zarif and provoke a wider foreign policy crisis. In a statement, Zarif urged other diplomats not to follow his course of action, saying the aim of his resignation was to strengthen his department.

In his resignation note, Zarif apologised for his “shortcomings” and “inability to continue serving”.

There were informed reports that he was angry at being excluded from a meeting between the Iranian leadership and Bashar al-Assad when the Syrian president made a rare visit to Tehran on Monday.

The future of Syria is critical to Iranian foreign policy, and Zarif’s exclusion from a meeting between Rouhani and Assad was taken as a snub that undermined the prestige and efficiency of the foreign ministry. It is said to be one of a series of clashes between the office of the president and the foreign ministry.

On Sunday, Zarif had criticised Iranian hardliners in a speech in Tehran, saying: “We cannot hide behind imperialism’s plot and blame them for our own incapability. Independence does not mean isolation from the world.”

Zarif’s resignation leaves Rouhani without one of his main allies in pushing the Iran towards more negotiation with the west. Analysts have said Rouhani faces growing political pressure from hardliners in the government as the unravelling nuclear deal further strains the economy.

Zarif, who is fluent in English, is seen as the acceptable face of Iranian diplomacy to the west, which has made him the subject of relentless attack by hardliners, especially over his role in championing the nuclear deal.

Donald Trump pulled the US out of the agreement last year, leaving Europe to make limited efforts to prevent powerful US sanctions from destroying Iranian hopes of increasing trade with the west – the supposed benefit of the deal from the Iranian standpoint.

European diplomats were aghast at Zarif’s resignation, potentially losing their chief interlocutor, and angrily condemning the US for pushing him over the edge. One diplomat likened the US administration’s attitude to Marxist revolutionaries worshipping at the altar of change and disruption.

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The EU has long warned sanctions that cripple the Iranian economy will only weaken reformists in Tehran, and not usher in the kind of democratic revolution that the Trump team seem to be seeking to engineer.

The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, tweeted his reaction to Zarif’s announcement.

Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) We note @JZarif’s resignation. We’ll see if it sticks. Either way, he and @HassanRouhani are just front men for a corrupt religious mafia. We know @khamenei_ir makes all final decisions. Our policy is unchanged—the regime must behave like a normal country and respect its people.

A US state department official tweeted an unflattering gif of Zarif, saying: “How do you know @JZarif is lying? His lips are moving.”

Zarif served as Iran’s ambassador to the UN from 2002 to 2007, first under the reformist president Mohammad Khatami and then under the hardline Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Later, secret talks between the US and Iran in Oman became fully fledged negotiations over its nuclear programme. During the talks, Zarif met the then US secretary of state, John Kerry, more than 50 times – something unimaginable years earlier.