Kim Sengupta: Zarif's fall isn’t just dangerous for Iran – it will bolster America’s flawed view of the Middle East

By Dilip -
The offer of resignation from Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, is of great importance to Iran and the outside world. His departure will significantly weaken the reformist government of Hassan Rouhani, strengthen the country’s hardliners and help the Trump administration’s quest for regime change in Tehran.

The grave concern about what is unfolding was shown by 150 out of 290 members of the Iranian parliament signing a petition urging Zarif to stay within hours of him announcing, via Instagram, he was leaving, and other MPs saying they too will be putting their names on it.

 A Victim of Trump? Iran’s Centrist Foreign Minister Mysteriously Forced Out

The Tehran Stock Exchange index fell 1.1 per per cent in 24 hours, and the country’s business people and bankers’ association expressed anxiety about the reaction of foreign investors – whose numbers are already dwindling after the reimposition of American trade sanctions – to the news.
Zarif was the key architect on the Iranian side of the agreement with international states over its nuclear programme – an agreement which took years to negotiate and one which five of the signatories (Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China), as well as the UN, stressed was working and making the world a safer place.
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/iran-mohammad-javad-zarif-us-middle-east-a8797821.html

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