Hassan Rouhani: The Government Will Neither Resign Nor Withdraw

Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, on Wednesday, July 6, referred to the country's economic conditions and the intensifying U.S. sanctions against Tehran, stating that "the government will neither resign nor withdraw." Recently, some figures close to Rouhani and government opponents have suggested his resignation to navigate the current conditions in the country. Meanwhile, some members of parliament have indicated that they might bring a motion of incompetence against the president to the parliament. Rouhani, whose government is currently grappling with protests over economic instability and currency issues stemming from the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA, called for alignment among the three branches of government to overcome these conditions during a meeting with senior government officials. Reflecting on the formation of the JCPOA and the current U.S. exit from the agreement, he stated that there are three paths ahead. The first path, according to him, is "surrender" and changing the JCPOA according to the desires of the Trump administration. Rouhani considered the second path to be the continuation of internal disputes and standing firm against U.S. pressures, while the third, less costly path, was to set aside internal disagreements and manage expectations while resisting U.S. pressures. He rejected the first two paths and called for adopting the third solution. Rouhani stated, "The government, as the representative of the people, and I, as someone who until yesterday said I relied on 24 million votes, and today I rely on 81 million Iranians, say we must choose exactly what national interests demand and move in coordination with other branches." These remarks come at a time when no new elections have been held in Iran to demonstrate the level of support Rouhani has from the Iranian people; however, one of the significant slogans during the protests in December of last year was, "Reformist, principlist / the story is over," indicating a desire to move beyond existing political factions in the Islamic Republic. In another part of his speech, Rouhani said, "Today, the government and I, as president and representative of the nation, kiss the hands of everyone and bow before all segments of the nation and factions, even those who have insulted the government the most." The Iranian president further called on government agencies to adopt austerity measures and avoid wastefulness. He stated, "In 2018, foreign trips should not be like those in 2016 and 2017, and if a delegation was five people in previous years, it should be reduced to two this year, and if we traveled with first-class and business tickets, we should now go with economy tickets so that people see that we are starting the change from ourselves, and in such circumstances, the people will stand by us." Recently, the currency and gold coin markets in Iran have become extremely volatile, with the dollar nearing 9,000 tomans and the price of gold coins approaching three million tomans. These severe fluctuations, along with the announcement of a ban on the import of 1,400 items into the country, have sparked widespread reactions and protests from merchants and shopkeepers in Tehran. In this context, Yahya Rahim Safavi, a former commander of the Revolutionary Guards and military advisor to the Supreme Leader, stated that "it seems that the country would be better managed without the government." Previously, conservative parliament member Ebrahim Pourmokhtar and Hossein Allah-Karam, head of the Hezbollah Coordination Council, had also called for handing the country over to a military president. In parallel with these statements, Amir Khajasteh, another conservative parliament member, warned on Tuesday that if the government fails to present its plans to counter the enemy's conspiracies in the economic war to the parliament, representatives will pursue the motion of incompetence against the president. However, Hossein Mousavian, a former nuclear negotiator and close ally of Rouhani, suggested the resignation of the government from a different perspective. Mousavian, referring to the pressures on the government and labeling Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization, as "traitors," proposed the "resignation of the current government and holding early elections" so that, according to him, "the current economic situation of the people and the major national interests of the country do not become the two main victims of the current disputes among domestic political factions," implicitly suggesting handing over affairs to a faction acceptable to the Supreme Leader.