Iranian govt official who was key to 2015 nuclear deal resigns under hard-liner pressure

A former Iranian foreign minister who was key to the country's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers reportedly tendered his resignation on Monday from the government of reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, caving in to pressure from hard-liners.

The resignation of Mohammad Javad Zarif signaled Tehran's rapid retreat from its outreach to the West as U.S. President Donald Trump intensifies sanctions on the country.

Zarif has served as vice president to Pezeshkian and has long been a target of hard-liners within the country's theocracy. He had tried to resign once before and it remained unclear whether Pezeshkian accepted his attempt to leave the government this time.

The development comes after Iran's parliament on Sunday impeached Finance Minister Abdolnasser Hemmati, who once ran for the presidency signaling he'd be willing to talk to the U.S. president directly.

While lawmakers focused on their criticism of Hemmati over Iran's plummeting rial currency, his removal also underscored the danger faced by Pezeshkian, who won election last year promising to reach out to the West to get sanctions lifted.

"Pezeshkian may have worse days ahead," warned Mohmmad Ebrahim Ansari Lari, a reformist and a political analyst.

A new resignation from Zarif

The state-run IRNA news agency reported on Monday that Zarif handed in his resignation to Pezeshkian late the previous night, though it was unclear if the president accepted it. It marked the second time Zarif has attempted to resign as Pezeshkian's vice president for strategic affairs.

Writing on the social platform X, Zarif said he met Sunday with the head of the country's judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei.

"Referring to the country's conditions, he recommended that I return to university to prevent further pressure on the government," Zarif wrote. "I immediately accepted."

Zarif did not elaborate on what Mohseni-Ejei told him and there was no readout from the judiciary on the conversation. However, hard-liners had targeted Zarif since Pezeshkian's election, citing a law that bars people from Iranian public office if they have children holding foreign passports. Zarif's children are naturally born U.S. citizens as he had lived in the United States when serving as a local staffer with Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York.

That had not previously stopped Zarif from rising within Iran's Foreign Ministry.

Zarif has used resignation announcements in the past in his political career as leverage, including in a dispute last year over the composition of Pezeshkian's Cabinet. The president had rejected that resignation.

Iran's position on talks harden

In recent months, things have changed drastically for Iran following Trump's return to the White House. While Iran's 85-year-old supreme leader in August opened the door to negotiations with the West, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei slammed it shut again in February.

Trump, while suggesting he was willing to negotiate with Tehran, also has embarked on a renewed "maximum pressure" campaign of sanctions.

Pezeshkian himself on Sunday seemingly followed suit with Khamenei's new edict.

"My belief was that talks are better but the supreme leader has said we do not negotiate with the U.S and we will go forward in the direction of the statements of our top leader," Pezeshkian said.

The U.S. sanctions come as Iran has accelerated its production of near weapons-grade uranium, according to a report by the United Nations' nuclear watchdog seen by The Associated Press. Iran maintains its program is peaceful, but U.S. intelligence agencies assess Tehran has "undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so." Iranian officials also increasingly hint they could seek the bomb.

Both Israel and the U.S. have said they won't allow Iran to make a nuclear weapon, raising the possibility of further escalation after Tehran has twice attacked Israel during its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.