Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has warned President Masoud Pezeshkian that he would accept his resignation if the president submits one again, according to a senior cleric with family ties to the leadership, marking an escalation in internal power struggles over US negotiations and control of the Strait of Hormuz.
Mohammad Bagher Kharrazi, whose sister is married to Khamenei’s brother, claimed in a video released Monday that the warning was intended to see Pezeshkian “back down.” “They’ve written that if Mr. Pezeshkian does it one more time, they will accept his request. They’ve officially announced it,” Kharrazi said, according to Iran International. “Pezeshkian no longer dares to do it.”
Pezeshkian denied the claims in a televised interview on Tuesday, his second anniversary in office. “We are fully coordinated with the military forces. I will not resign, and I will stand firm,” the president said. “If I resign, I will formally announce that I have resigned.” His office dismissed Kharrazi’s account as baseless.
The warning follows Pezeshkian’s submission of a resignation letter in late May 2026, when he told Khamenei’s office that he had been excluded from vital decision-making processes and that hardline Revolutionary Guards factions had taken control of state affairs. In that letter, Pezeshkian argued he could no longer fulfill his constitutional responsibilities, according to Iran International. Khamenei did not accept the May resignation.
The current tensions center on the Iran-US Memorandum of Understanding, signed in June 2026, which calls for reopening the Strait of Hormuz and ending military operations. Pezeshkian has championed the deal, while hardline factions argue it crosses Khamenei’s red lines. Four senior Iranian officials told the New York Times in early July that Pezeshkian had previously threatened to resign if Khamenei rejected the agreement.
Roger Macmillan, a terrorism and security specialist, offered an interpretation of the warning’s deeper significance. “Pezeshkian’s only weapon was always the threat to walk. What we’re seeing this week is Mojtaba Khamenei taking that weapon away from him, telling him, in effect, ‘go ahead, resign, see if I care,'” Macmillan told the Jerusalem Post. He warned that moves to replace security officials and sideline the foreign minister signaled the IRGC was “hardening” and “moving to total control” of the Islamic Republic at a critical moment in US negotiations.
Khamenei’s office eventually denied Kharrazi’s claims as “fundamentally false and untrue,” and Ali-Asghar Shafieian, an adviser to Pezeshkian, questioned whether Kharrazi had even met the Supreme Leader. The dispute has drawn criticism from reformist figures who described the remarks as inflammatory at an already tense time, as officials struggle to reach consensus on how much to sacrifice to maintain control of the vital shipping chokepoint.
Sources
- Iran International — Kharrazi’s claims about Khamenei’s warning and Pezeshkian’s May resignation letter
- The Jerusalem Post — Khamenei’s warning and expert analysis from Roger Macmillan on IRGC control
- The Guardian — Pezeshkian’s televised denial and claims about the warning; context on Strait of Hormuz negotiations
- New York Times — Four senior Iranian officials’ accounts of Pezeshkian threatening resignation over the MoU
