Iran's vice-president Javad Zarif resigns, yet again

Mohammad Javad Zarif, the architect of Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, resigned as Iran's vice-president, state media reported Sunday, a few days after the country's Supreme Leader voiced his opposition to holding talks with Washington.

"President Masoud Pezeshkian has received Javad Zarif's resignation letter but has not yet responded," the Iranian government's official news agency IRNA confirmed.

Zarif's resignation came after the Parliament ousted the Pezeshkian administration’s finance minister in a vote of no confidence, the IRGC-affiliated Fars News reported, citing two unnamed sources.

However, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported that the resignation was unrelated to the Parliament's impeachment of the finance minister and was submitted before the vote of no confidence.

"In his letter to the president, Zarif said that he prefers to serve Iran by teaching at a university," ISNA added.

Many observers believed that Zarif joined the Pezeshkian administration to help negotiate another nuclear deal with world powers similar to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was scrapped by Donald Trump during his first term in office.

However, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the country's ultimate decision-maker, rejected the idea of talks with Trump last month, calling them "neither wise, nor intelligent, nor honorable."

The Iranian president told parliament on Sunday that he initially supported negotiations with the United States but deferred to Khamenei’s position against engaging in talks.

“I believed it was better to engage in dialogue, but when the Leader said we would not negotiate with the US, I said, ‘We will not negotiate with the US, period,’” Masoud Pezeshkian said.

He added that government policy must align with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s stance on the issue.

Zarif is no stranger to resignations, treating them almost like brief intermissions—having submitted five during his tenure under former President Hassan Rouhani.

Last August, he resigned as Pezeshkian's aide, but his departure was short-lived, as he returned as vice president for strategic affairs within a couple of weeks.

In November, Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf joined hardliners in the parliament who had long been calling for Zarif's dismissal over his son's US citizenship.

Ghalibaf called on Zarif to resign voluntarily as he, too, believed that Zarif’s appointment to the post was illegal.

Led by the Paydari (Steadfastness) Party faction, ultra-hardliners in Parliament have refused to amend a 2020 law that prohibits appointing dual nationals or individuals whose spouses or children hold dual nationality to "sensitive positions" in the government. Hardliners argue the restriction applies to Zarif.