Mohammad Javad Zarif, strategic foreign policy adviser to Iran’s president and a prominent figure advocating for talks with the West, has again resigned amid fierce pushback from hardline opponents. The former foreign minister and face of reformist-backed negotiations with global powers that led to Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal confirmed the move in an online post early on Monday,

Iran’s veteran diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif stepped down as vice president a day after parliament ousted the finance minister, signaling a growing rift between hardliners and moderates in the Islamic Republic.

Zarif had already been at the center of controversies in Iran because some politicians had critiqued him over the last several months.