TEHRAN, Iran _ Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who played a pivotal role in negotiating the 2013 nuclear pact that President Donald Trump scrapped, announced his resignation Monday on his Instagram page.
The ministry confirmed the resignation, according to Iranian state news agency IRNA. President Hassan Rouhani has yet to accept Zarif's resignation, state news reported.
Zarif wrote on his Instagram page that he was thankful to have served the Iranian people and apologized for what he said was his inability to continue in the post. The Instagram post did not give a reason for the resignation.
The foreign minister's departure comes as Syrian President Bashar Assad was in Tehran to meet with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It was Assad's first public visit to the close ally since the beginning of the Syrian civil war.
Zarif's resignation could well be related to Assad's visit, said Abdul Ghasem Golbaf, a 61-year-old Iran analyst based in Tehran. It also could stem from Zarif's frustrations with the internal political struggles between conservative hardliners and Rouhani's government, he said.
Zarif played a key role in nuclear negotiations during the short-lived rapprochement between the U.S. and Iran during the Obama administration.
The foreign minister, who has held various diplomatic posts since the 1990s, was welcomed by cheering crowds when he returned to Iran after breakthroughs in the nuclear talks in 2013.
Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal last year.
Ali Reza Rahim, a reformist member of Iran's parliament, wrote in a tweet that whoever replaces Zarif will "destroy all his achievements."
"If his resignation is true, then it proves that his opponents have stabbed him in the back," Rahim wrote.
Tension between Iran's conservative hardliners and Rouhani's moderate government have been increasing since the U.S. withdrew from the landmark nuclear accord. Some religious clerics and have even called for Rouhani to resign, saying his government is to blame for Iran's skyrocketing inflation and crumbling economy.
Hassan Abbasi, a retired general hard-line general, said in a speech this month that he believed Iranians would spit on Zarif and others in the government who backed the nuclear deal.
Addressing the Iranian people in his post, Zarif wrote: "I appreciate the high mindedness of the dear people of Iran and the distinguished officials," Zarif said. "I apologize for the shortcomings during my sincere services, I wish you happiness."
Zarif attended Drew College preparatory school in San Francisco and went on to study at San Francisco State University, where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees. He then went on to the University of Denver where he earned a second master's degree in international relations and then a Ph.D. in international law and policy in 1988.
Last year, after Trump addressed Iran's president on Twitter with threats, using his trademark all-capital letters for emphasis, Zarif took to Trump's favorite social media outlet to reply.
The foreign minister sprinkled some capital letters in his own tweet: "COLOR US UNIMPRESSED. ...We've been around for millennia & seen fall of empires, incl our own, which lasted more than the life of some countries. BE CAUTIOUS!"
(Times staff writer Etehad reported from Los Angeles and special correspondent Mostaghim from Tehran.)
