Mohammad Javad Zarif, the charismatic head of the Iranian Foreign Ministry shocked the whole world on the night of February 25 by a tweet in Instagram where he said he was quitting as Foreign Minister. “I bring my sincere apologies for not being ready to continue as Foreign Minister,” he wrote. “Please forgive me for the shortcomings in my service.” ...

While it seemed all but certain on Monday evening that President Bashar Al-Assad’s surprise visit to Tehran would dominate the news the next day, by Tuesday morning the resignation of Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif had already captured the headlines. For security reasons, President Assad’s visit to Tehran was kept a secret until he was already safe in Damascus. Very ...