Zarif Resigns

Iran’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, has resigned, informing the public of his decision on Instagram. The state-operated Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) confirmed the news. 

His post on Instagram read: "I am apologizing to you for all the shortcomings ... in the past years during my time as foreign minister ... I thank the Iranian nation and officials.”

As one of the most prominent members of President Hassan Rouhani’s administration, Zarif played a key role in bringing about the nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was signed in 2015 after intense negotiations between Iran and the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China and Germany. As a result, Iran agreed not to produce nuclear weapons and reduce its production of enriched uranium in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. 

President Trump announced the United States was pulling out of the deal in May 2018, re-imposing sanctions against Iran.

Zarif has faced sustained criticism from hardliner politicians in Iran, and the BBC’s Lyse Doucet spoke of the “extraordinary political pressure” he had been under. She said his resignation might be a seen as a direct response to this pressure and those politicians and officials that had undermined him. 

News of Zarif’s resignation came amid reports that Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad had made an unexpected and rare visit to Iran, where he met with the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and President Rouhani, but not with Zarif. 

The country is also suffering a debilitating economic crisis, which has deepened since Trump’s decision to withdraw from the JCPOA. Although Rouhani's promises to boost the country's economy did much to secure him a second term as president, these improvements have not materialized. Food prices have soared, and unemployment remains high. 

Tehran did not release an immediate official statement regarding the announcement, but, as a close ally of President Rouhani, Zarif’s resignation will be a significant blow for the administration. Rouhani has not formally or publicly accepted the resignation. 

The Washington-based National Iranian American Council in Washington said that if Zarif's resignation materialized it would "be a major signal that Zarif believes there is little room for a diplomat with his depth of knowledge of the United States and its political system, as there are likely to be no negotiations between the US and Iran until 2021 at the earliest." 

Iranian officials have also been debating whether to bring Iranian banks in line with international standards and introduce more transparency. So Zarif's announcement could also signal a more strident rejection of diplomacy with the West since, as Michael Singh, managing director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, points out "Zarif is the poster boy for the JCPOA and engagement with the West.”