Iran Dismisses Pezeshkian Resignation Reports as 'False Media Games'

(MENAFN) A senior Iranian official moved swiftly Sunday to quash circulating reports that President Masoud Pezeshkian had stepped down, flatly dismissing the claims as disinformation orchestrated by hostile foreign media outlets.

Presidential Office Deputy Head of Communications Mehdi Tabatabaei took to X — the US-based social media platform — to label the resignation reports as "false," characterizing them as a continuation of "media games" played by certain foreign outlets seeking to destabilize Iran.

"Pezeshkian would not back down from serving the Iranian people," he said, stressing that Iran "would not retreat from the path of unity and solidarity."

Tabatabaei went further, issuing a pointed warning to those he accused of attempting to fracture Iran's national cohesion, declaring that such actors would once again "take that wish to the grave" — a defiant rejection of what he framed as deliberate efforts to sow division within the country.

The denial comes against a backdrop of severe regional turbulence. Tensions across the Middle East have surged sharply since the US and Israel launched coordinated strikes against Iran in late February, triggering a series of retaliatory Iranian attacks on Israel and US allies throughout the Gulf, as well as the closure of the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.

A fragile ceasefire brokered through Pakistani mediation took hold on April 8, but subsequent diplomatic talks held in Islamabad collapsed without producing a durable agreement. Since then, Iran and the US have remained locked in a tense back-and-forth exchange of proposals and counterproposals, as both sides cautiously explore a pathway back to direct negotiations and a formal end to hostilities.

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