Did Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian Resign Over Disagreement With IRGC? A Fact Check

Iranian authorities have dismissed a report claiming Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian has sought to step down in protest over the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) unchecked dominance in Tehran's wartime decision-making. The rebuttal came after UK-based Iran International reported that Pezeshkian had submitted his resignation to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, saying that the elected government has effectively been excluded from vital decision-making processes in the country and that the vacuum created by this situation has enabled hardline factions within the IRGC to take control of affairs. 

Citing an informed government source, the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency reported that the president has not resigned and continues to carry out his duties. Follow Live Updates

Separately, Seyed Mehdi Tabatabaei, deputy head of communications and information at the president's office, also dismissed the Iran International report in a post on X, and said that Pezeshkian would not step back from serving the people.

"The rumour-mongering by the disreputable foreign network is a continuation of previous ridiculous media games. They have published their own wishful thinking in place of reality," Tabatabaei's post read. 

"President Pezeshkian will not retreat from serving the people, just as the Iranian nation will not step back from the path of solidarity and resistance. They will take their wish to shatter the unity of the Iranian nation to the grave," it added. 

The Report

Iran International, citing sources, claimed that Pezeshkian has submitted an official letter of resignation to the Office of the Supreme Leader, in which he claimed that under the IRGC's dominance in decision-making, he was unable to run the government and carry out his legal responsibilities, and for that reason, he was requesting to step down immediately.

This added to months of reports claiming tensions between the government and the Islamic Republic's military-security institutions. Earlier, a New York Times report claimed that a small, elite band of men in senior positions, most of whom are current or former senior IRGC commanders, are guiding decision-making in Iran. 

"Senior Iranian officials maintain that all key matters are run by the 56-year-old heir. Decision making, however, extends beyond one man," the report said, adding that a "hardened band of brothers" whose "seminal experience was the brutal, eight-year war between Iran and Iraq that began in 1980".