Tabnak – In a surprise move, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif announced his resignation via social media last night. While President Rouhani has not yet accepted Zarif’s resignation, Iranian lawmakers are actively trying to dissuade him from going ahead with his decision.
In this vein, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said earlier today that President Hassan Rouhani has not accepted Zarif’s resignation. “Any interpretation and analysis revolving around the reasons behind the resignation of Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif, except for what he has posted on his Instagram account, are incorrect,” Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Tuesday.
“A the chief of staff of the Iranian president said today, the resignation has not been accepted,” he added.
Late on Monday, the Iranian foreign minister took to his Instagram account to announce his unexpected resignation. “I am grateful for magnanimity of the dear and courageous people of Iran and the respectable authorities’ over the past 67 months,” read the post.
Qassemi further lashed out at “certain circles” for attempting to reap political and factional gains from Zarif’s announcement.
Meanwhile, more than 150 Iranian lawmakers asked Rouhani to turn Zarif’s resignation. In comments on Tuesday morning, rapporteur of the Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission said a group of lawmakers have sent a letter to President Hassan Rouhani to voice support for Foreign Minister Zarif.
The letter, signed by 150 parliamentarians, has asked the president to turn down Zarif’s resignation and encourage him to remain in his post.
The Iranian president's chief of staff, Mahmoud Vaezi, has rejected media reports that the president has accepted Zarif’s resignation. “The reports that the president has accepted Dr. Zarif’s resignation are strongly rejected,” Vaezi said in a post on his Twitter account.
Also, Chairman of the Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Heshmatollah Falahat Pishe told the Tasnim News Agency, “We are still unaware whether or not the president has accepted Mr. Zarif’s resignation.”
On the other hand, in a speech on Tuesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani Zarif for standing against the US. In comments at a general assembly of the Central Bank of Iran on Tuesday, Rouhani took a swipe at the US government for hatching plots against Iran’s banking system and sale of oil.
“Today, the Foreign Ministry, the Central Bank and the Oil Ministry are on our front line against the US,” he said. The president also expressed his gratitude to Zarif and to the CBI governor and the minister of oil for serving at the front line in the battle against the US.
Born in 1960, Zarif lived in the United States from the age of 17 as a student in San Francisco and Denver, and subsequently as a diplomat to the United Nations in New York, where he served as Iranian ambassador from 2002 to 2007.
He was appointed minister of foreign affairs in August 2013 after Rouhani won the presidency.
