Iran’s veteran diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif stepped down as vice president a day after parliament ousted the finance minister, signaling a growing rift between hardliners and moderates in the Islamic Republic.

Zarif described his resignation as a result of being "pushed out" and lamented that, since the start of the new administration, he had endured “the most degrading insults, slander and threats” and had experienced “the most bitter period of my forty years in public service, even within the government itself.”

Mohammad Javad Zarif, strategic foreign policy adviser to Iran’s president and a prominent figure advocating for talks with the West, has again resigned amid fierce pushback from hardline opponents. The former foreign minister and face of reformist-backed negotiations with global powers that led to Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal confirmed the move in an online post early on Monday,