Iran’s foreign minister said Tuesday he hoped his sudden resignation would reinforce the position of his fellow diplomats, hinting that a dispute with the security apparatus and hard-liners led to a “deadly poison for foreign policy.”
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s foreign minister said Tuesday he hoped his sudden resignation would reinforce the position of his fellow diplomats, hinting that a dispute with the security apparatus and hard-liners led to a “deadly poison for foreign policy.”
Mohammed Javad Zarif’s move sent shockwaves through Iran, where tensions are already running high over America’s withdraw from the nuclear deal he helped negotiate with President Hassan Rouhani.
The Tehran stock market dropped 1,927 points Tuesday, down some 1.16 percent. The Iranian rial, which has rapidly depreciated amid uncertainty over the deal’s future, stood around 135,600 rials to $1. It had been 32,000 to the dollar at the time of the deal.
The state-run IRNA news agency said Zarif told colleagues his resignation would aid in “restoring the ministry to its legal position in foreign relations.”
Zarif elaborated in an interview published Tuesday by the daily Jomhuori Eslami.
“A deadly poison for foreign policy is that it becomes the subject of factionalism and parties’ quarrel,” Zarif reportedly said. “There should be trust toward servants of foreign policy in the national level. Without trust in them, everything will go with wind.
