Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has submitted his resignation, Reuters reported Monday.

Writing in Persian on his personal Instagram account, Zarif, who was the public face of Iran during the 2015 nuclear negotiations with the P5+1 — which consisted of the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany — said, “I am apologising you for all the shortcomings…in the past years during my time as foreign minister … I thank the Iranian nation and officials.”

Although a source in Iran’s foreign ministry has confirmed the resignation, it isn’t clear that President Hassan Rouhani has accepted it.

Though frequently described as a “moderate,” Zarif unapologetically defended the regime he represented.

Last week, when he was asked about human rights abuses committed by Iran, Zarif responded, “I am a human rights professor,” without actually responding to the charges.

Earlier this month, Zarif appeared with Hezbollah’s leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah and other Lebanese leaders in Beirut. During the meeting, the terror chief thanked Zarif for Iran’s assistance in fighting “Zionist aggression.”

Last year, Zarif appeared in a video chanting, “Death to America”, “Death to Britain” and “Death to Israel,” during a speech given by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The appearance of Zarif calling for the destruction of Iran’s enemies contradicted the conventional wisdom about him. FRANCE 24 Tehran correspondent Reza Sayah, referring to Zarif, said shortly before the video emerged that “the moderates, of course, were not chanting ‘death to America’.”

In addition to defending the Iranian regime, Zarif has also engaged in Holocaust denial. When his announcement was first announced in 2013, a video emerged of Zarif dodging a question if he acknowledged the Holocaust.

A 2016 Washington Post editorial observed that that so-called moderates like Rouhani, did “a good job of disguising” their differences with Tehran’s hardliners on the matter of Holocaust denial.

There’s an irony in Zarif posting his resignation on a social media platform denied to most Iranians. In 2013, he was asked what it was like to post on Facebook and Twitter while the average Iranian was denied access to those platforms. Zarif laughed and said, “That’s life.”

[Photo: PressTV / YouTube ]