What’s behind Javad Zarif's resignation from Iran’s new government?

Analysis

A correspondent in Tehran

Aug 12, 2024

Mohammad Javad Zarif, the former Iranian Foreign Minister, flashes victory sign during an election rally in support of Iranian presidential election candidate Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran, Iran, on June 24, 2024. Iran is holding snap presidential elections to choose the next president after the death of Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash. After the election with a historically low turnout on Friday, Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran's presidential election candidate and former reformist member of the Iranian parliam — Mohammad Javad Zarif, the former Iranian Foreign Minister, flashes victory sign during an election rally in support of Iranian presidential election candidate Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran, Iran, on June 24, 2024. — HOSSEIN BERIS/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

TEHRAN — Iran's political scene was shell-shocked late on Sunday after prominent Reformist figure Mohammad Javad Zarif stepped down from his post as vice president only days after taking the post.

The former foreign minister and seasoned US-educated diplomat is known in the West for his pro-engagement policies and the key role he played in the negotiations that culminated in the 2015 nuclear deal.

Sidelined by the hard-line administration of late president Ebrahim Raisi the past three years, Zarif made a political comeback by joining low-profile moderate President Masoud Pezeshkian as a running mate in last month's snap presidential race.

Pezeshkian's victory in the polls, Reformists argue, was made possible mainly thanks to the campaign strategies developed by Zarif, who was glued to the candidate during public rallies and made relentless, last-minute pleas to an apathetic Iranian electorate that had lost hope in the political process.