Al-Monitor | Rohollah Faghihi: Iranian Reformists have called on President Hassan Rouhani to step down, while hard-liners, surprisingly, are urging him to remain in office.

Rouhani has faced unprecedented pressure in recent months, as new crises arise each day, including countrywide protests. It's possible Rouhani is unlucky, as several unforeseen events have taken place during his tenure, such as the 2017 election of Donald Trump — possibly the worst thing a moderate president of Iran could have imagined. Trump's election led to the death of the 2015 nuclear deal and the reimposition of US sanctions. However, Iran and the United States are seemingly doomed to have hostile ties. When Iran elects a moderate as president, the United States has a conservative as head of state, and vice versa.

Prominent Reformist theorist Saeed Hajjarian was the first to bring up the idea of Rouhani’s resignation. In May 2019, when Iran's economic crisis peaked due to US sanctions, Hajjarian stated that since parliament had effectively lost its power, Iran's economic problems could be solved by Rouhani's resignation and the subsequent holding of parliamentary and presidential elections, so the hard-liners and conservatives could win both.

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