Al-Monitor - The Iranian government dismissed the latest in a series of reports that President Hassan Rouhani is resigning from his post. Government spokesman and presidential aide Ali Rabiee dismissed the �rumors� in an interview with reporters after a cabinet meeting in Tehran Feb. 12. �As I have written before, Rouhani will stay with the nation to the end of his tenure,� Rabiee declared, adding that he denies �in advance� any other such reports that may surface in the future.

The resignation report has been circulating this week across Iran�s hard-line media with no clear origin. But pro-Rouhani outlets blamed Alireza Zakani, a conservative former lawmaker with close links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). �The government is seeking to negotiate with [US President Donald] Trump � And if they fail to do so, the president will step down,� Zakani told a meeting of conservatives in Tehran last week. Zakani said his account came from a �Rouhani government official working with the parliament.� But Rouhani�s deputy for parliamentary affairs Hossein-Ali Amiri dismissed the claim as �baseless� and challenged the ex-lawmaker to name the official.

The wish for Rouhani's resignation, nevertheless, has not been exclusive to hard-liners. In the fallout of the deadly November protests against the government�s controversial fuel price hikes, senior Reformist figure Abbas Abdi proposed that the president step down for a snap presidential election to restore stability to the country. Abdi claimed that even some ministers within the Rouhani cabinet had advised the president to do so because they believed that �nothing could be done� to resolve the crisis.

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