Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian published an edited, pre-recorded video on Tuesday teasing a new interview in state media in which he insisted he is not planning on resigning from the office.
The state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) announced that Pezeshkian’s “candid conversation with the public will be released in four parts, beginning tonight,” and will include effusive denials that he is seeking to step down. Pezeshkian, “elected” in a rigged election following the mysterious death of predecessor Ebrahim Raisi in 2024 as a “moderate,” has been the subject of repeated rumors that his relationship with the terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has long been challenging, frustrating him to consider stepping out of politics completely. Pezeshkian remains in power, however, and insisted again this week that he had no interest in fading out of leadership.
“I will not resign and I will stand firm,” Pezeshkian reportedly said in the brief video published. “If I resign, I will formally announce that I have resigned.”
The president claimed that rumors that he would step down were intended to “create discord” within the Iranian government at a delicate time in which the White House claims it is once again negotiating a peace deal with Tehran, a claim the Iranian Foreign Ministry denied on Monday. Pezeshkian also claimed that he maintained a fruitful and productive relationship with the IRGC and “fully co-ordinated” national policy with the armed forces.
“If I want to resign, well, I will officially announce that I have resigned; I will not resign; I will stand,” Pezeshkian reportedly insisted, asserting that enemies of the Iranian regime were trying to create a “rift” in the government.
The state-run Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) also shared that Pezeshkian added, “a person who is incapacitated will not be given a post” in government, potentially a response to the widespread rumors that Mojtaba Khamenei was severely injured in an airstrike prior to its ascent to the “supreme leader” positions, potentially disfigured or losing a limb. The Iranian government has denied all rumors that the younger Khamenei is incapacitated in any way, but he has not made any public appearances to put the rumors to rest. In contrast, Pezeshkian has taken the initiative of walking the streets of Tehran and shaking hands with members of the public as a symbol of his proximity to the Iranian people.
In Iran, president is a largely ceremonial role subservient to the “supreme leader.” Under late “supreme leader” Ali Khamenei, the president and the civilian wing of government was often pitted against the IRGC and the military wing, vying for Khamenei’s influence against each other. Khamenei was killed on February 28 as one of the first acts of “Operation Epic Fury,” the American military campaign to weaken the Iranian terror state. He was allegedly replaced by his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen in public or issued any video or audio addresses since being announced as the new dictator in March.
The video appears to be a response to a report in the independent outlet Iran International in which a source on the record says that Khamenei has warned Pezeshkian that if he attempts to resign one more time, he will be removed from office. The report claimed that an exasperated Pezeshkian has attempted to resign 28 times, and each time the younger Khamenei has rejected the attempt to leave the government, but he has warned the president that he will no longer reject a resignation letter.
“If he resigns one more time, I will approve it. I will write ‘approved’ underneath it, and that will be the end of it,” a cleric related to Khamenei identified as Mohammad-Bagher Kharrazi, is quoted as saying, paraphrasing Khamenei. “Pezeshkian no longer dares. They all backed down.”
Iran International described a chaotic situation within the Iranian government in which various officials are blaming each other for signing the June “memorandum of understanding” with the United States intended to end the conflict that began in February, which lasted less than a month before Iran began attacking random commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz and its Gulf Arab neighbors once more. Citing a Pezeshkian adviser, Ali-Asghar Shafieian, Iran International claimed that Kharrazi was spreading rumors as part of a feud within the Iranian national security apparatus over signing the memorandum, and Kharrazi was allegedly representing a faction that opposed the peace deal.
Iran International was the source of a previous rumor in June that Pezeshkian attempted to resign and submitting a letter to the younger Khamenei complaining that the IRGC did not allow him to properly fulfill his obligations as president. That rumor surfaced after the IRGC began publishing messages at odds with the public statements of Pezeshkian’s top diplomat, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who denied that the country was cutting off negotiations with Washington.
“In the letter sent on Sunday, Pezeshkian stressed that the president and the government have effectively been excluded from major and vital decision-making processes in the country,” Iran International claimed at the time, “and that the vacuum created by this situation has enabled hardline factions within the IRGC to take control of affairs.”
The president published his latest “interview” after a tense weekend in which President Trump claimed that he had planned an extensive attack on Iran, but neighboring countries discouraged him from going forward with it and that
“We were all set to go, just about at this time right now, and it would have been a massive attack,” Trump told reporters on Sunday. “But when the allies asked to call it off, you got to sort of say, ‘Well, let’s see.’”
Trump later claimed that negotiations with Iran toward a peace deal were ongoing, which the Iranian Foreign Ministry denied.
“Iranian Leadership is unbelievably duplicitous!” a frustrated Trump wrote on his website, Truth Social, on Monday night. “They ask for a meeting, some would say ‘beg,’ talks begin, with more scheduled in the immediate future, and they say, openly and proudly, that they’re not having any discussions.”