Iran: Zarif Resigns as Vice-President for Strategic Affairs

By Staff, Agencies

Iranian Vice-President for Strategic Affairs, Mohammad Javad Zarif, resigned from his position on Sunday.

Reports mentioned that President Masoud Pezeshkian has not yet approved the decision. 

Zarif's resignation came after the Iranian Parliament's questioning session earlier on Sunday of Finance and Economy Minister Abdolnaser Hemmati.

However, according to Tasnim news agency, the resignation was "unrelated to the vote of no confidence against Hemmati." 

Close associates of Zarif confirmed his resignation, though it has not yet been officially announced, Tasnim mentioned.

According to Iranian state television, Hemmati’s parliamentary questioning ultimately led to a vote of no confidence against him due to his handling of the high inflation crisis and the depreciation of the national currency.

A total of 182 lawmakers voted to dismiss Hemmati, while 89 opposed the motion. One member abstained and one vote was deemed invalid, out of the 273 lawmakers present at the session. 

The questioning focused on 10 key areas, including mismanagement of the foreign exchange and gold coin markets, improper allocation of foreign currency for essential goods and medicines, depreciation of the national currency, and the impact of exchange rates on basic commodities.

Additionally, it covered "the minister’s weak performance" in areas such as the stock market, the Competition Council, free trade zones, the customs system, and banking services.

Under the Iranian constitution, a minister’s dismissal takes immediate effect, with an acting minister appointed until the government selects a replacement.

On Sunday, the Iranian rial was trading at over 920,000 per US dollar on the black market, a sharp decline from less than 600,000 in mid-2024. 

Earlier, Pezeshkian defended Hemmati, the former central bank governor, telling lawmakers, "We are in a full-scale [economic] war with the enemy... we must take a war formation."

"The economic problems of today's society are not related to one person and we cannot blame it all on one person," he stressed.

Hemmati defended himself by stating that "the rate of the foreign exchange is not real; the price is due to inflationary expectations," adding before being dismissed from his position, "The most important problem of the country's economy is inflation, and that is chronic inflation, which has plagued our economy for years."

According to Iran's ISNA news agency, Hemmati was temporarily replaced by Rahmatollah Akrami, a deputy economy minister.