Tehran: Ruhani will not accept Sarif’s resignation
A resignation probably without consequences: The Iranian presidential office has confirmed the resignation of Foreign Minister Mohamed Jawad Sarif. At the same time, however, it was announced that President Hassan Ruhani would not accept this.
Sarif has brilliantly done his work so far and will continue to do so, according to the presidential office on his Instagram page. Therefore, President Ruhani will not accept this resignation. „Sarif will not be alone and we (the government) will all stick to him,“ said the presidential office.
Sarif had resigned late on Instagram Monday on Instagram. Observers in Tehran were surprised that Sarif announced such an important decision shortly before midnight local time on a social medium. But they also assumed that the president would not accept the resignation of his chief diplomat and Sarif therefore continue to remain in office.
The reasons for his resignation have been heavily speculated in the social media. Some claimed that he was fed up with the hardliners‘ constant criticism of the 2015 Vienna nuclear deal and its approach to the West. Others wrote that he had not been invited to the meeting with Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad on Monday and had resigned angrily. However, everyone agrees that a farewell to Sarif will also lead to a speedy end to the nuclear deal.
Sarif had negotiated decisively on the Iranian side the nuclear agreement with the UN veto powers and Germany. The 2015 agreement should prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. In return, sanctions should be lifted. The US has since withdrawn from the agreement and imposed new sanctions. As a result, Sarif was criticized domestically.
However, according to political observers in Tehran, Ruhani currently has no alternative for the experienced diplomat Sarif. In question would be his deputy Abbas Araghchi or nuclear chief and Vice President Ali-Akbar Salehi. But neither of them has the charisma of Sarif.
