The reason for the resignation of Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was that he was not informed about Syrian President Bashar Assad’s trip to Tehran last week, the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) reports.

The Iranian news agency cited Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi as the source in its report, which seemingly confirms a narrative about Zarif’s resignation last week that was offered by sources to some regional media outlets right after it happened. The Iranian foreign minister announced his resignation on his Instagram page last week, but it was rejected by President Hassan Rouhani the following day.

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“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not have information at any level [about the trip] and this lack of information was maintained until the end of the trip,” Qassemi said, according to ISNA.

The spokesman added that the unorthodox and very public resignation was meant to “return the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the diplomatic system of the country to its main place.”

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Zarif has held his current position since 2013 and is considered to be one of the architects of the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal, which was perceived as a major diplomatic breakthrough at the time. The deal has since been torpedoed by the Trump administration, which has made hostility towards Iran one of the pillars of its foreign policy.

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