
Zarif Returned Before He Had Time to Leave
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif announced he would be stepping down, in a surprise statement posted on his Instagram account. His statement caused a stir both in Iran and abroad. Political scientists and journalists vied to try to explain what prompted him to take this step. The prevailing story is that Zarif was not invited to the meeting between Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President of Syria Bashar al-Assad who arrived in Tehran for the first time after the start of the Syrian crisis. Many experts interpreted the presence of Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force Maj-Gen Qassem Soleimani alongside President Hassan Rouhani as a sign of the reduced role of the Iranian Foreign Ministry in Syrian affairs.… Seguir leyendo »