Iran’s former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has returned to the government of President Masoud Pezeshkian, just two weeks after stepping down as vice president.
Zarif confirmed on social media platform X that he will resume his work as vice president for strategic affairs, following talks with Pezeshkian.
In early August, he resigned after just eleven days as president over disagreements with Pezeshkian, who ran as a reformist politician, over his conservative cabinet.
The 64-year-old was Pezeshkian’s right-hand man during his election campaign earlier this summer and was seen as one of the key thinkers behind the new government’s foreign policy.
Zarif’s comeback came after photos from state news agency IRNA showed him at a cabinet meeting with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Zarif served as Iran’s top diplomat between 2013 and 2021 and in 2015 secured the historic Vienna accord on Iran’s nuclear program.
Under the deal, Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of U.N. sanctions, which have severely impacted Iran’s oil exports and banking sector.
The main goal of the pact was to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Iran has several vice presidents. The first vice president is the reformer Mohammed Reza Aref.
