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Mr Mohammad Javad Zarif has abruptly resigned from his new post as Iranian vice president for strategic affairs and head of the Center for Strategic Studies, just 10 days after his appointment.
The former foreign minister who negotiated a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with major world powers, announced his resignation on Monday.
In a post on his official X handle, Javad Zarif said he was “not satisfied with the result of his work” as head of the steering council for selecting the new Iranian administration’s cabinet members.
“I resigned from the position of vice-president for strategic affairs last week,” Zarif said on X, less than two weeks after the newly-elected reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian picked him as his deputy.
He cited several reasons for his resignation, most notably his disappointment with the line-up in the newly proposed 19-member cabinet.
President Pezeshkian on Sunday presented his cabinet, which included one woman, to parliament for approval.
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The proposed list drew criticism from some among Iran’s reformist camp, including over the inclusion of conservatives from the government of late president Ebrahim Raisi.
“My message… is not a sign of regret or disappointment with dear Dr. Pezeshkian or opposition to realism; rather it means doubting my usefulness as a vice-president for strategic affairs,” he said, noting he would return to academia and focus less on Iran’s domestic politics.
Zarif, who was Iran’s top diplomat between 2013 and 2021 in the government of president Hassan Rouhani, became known on the international stage during the lengthy negotiations for the 2015 accord formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Times of Israel reported.
