TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s state TV says the Tehran city council has accepted the resignation of Mayor Mohammad Ali Najafi who resigned last month after hard-liners criticized him for attending a school performance in which girls were dancing.

Tuesday’s report says 15 of the 21-member council voted in favour of accepting the resignation. Najafi was summoned by prosecutors in March to explain his presence at the school performance on the International Women’s Day.

Najafi, a U.S.-educated 65-year-old technocrat who came into office in August promising to fight corruption, submitted his resignation in mid-March, but the council rejected it at a meeting on Sunday.

Iran’s general prosecutor, Mohammad Jafar Montazerim, then urged Najafi to disregard the rejection and resign for a second time. </s> Tehran’s Mayor Mohammad Ali Najafi has once again resigned a few hours after Prosecutor-General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri threatened him to step down.

Montazeri on April 9 called the city council’s rejection of Najafi’s first resignation “political” and told the Mayor to resign again.

The mayor’s second resignation was announced only one day after the Tehran City Council rejected his first resignation on April 8.

Some of the council members said on Sunday that Najafi had resigned under political pressure, although he had mentioned “illness” as the reason.

Montazeri called the council’s rejection of Najafi’s resignation “an act of treason,” adding that the council should be held accountable if the ailing mayor fails to fulfill his responsibilities.

Montazeri’s statement “Resign and you won’t be prosecuted,” is one of the most blatant interventions by a judiciary official in this matter.

Referring to Montazeri’s remark, Council member Zahar Sadrazam Nouri said, “Now pressures are being exerted on the mayor openly.”

Another council member Mohammad Javad Haghshenas said in a tweet, “The prosecutor’s comment is beyond his legal status, and in violation of the Constitutional Law.”

Reformist MP Mahmoud Sadeqi reminded in a tweet “This is clearly within the city council’s jurisdiction to decide on the mayor’s resignation.”

Tehran City Council Chairman Mohsen Hashemi has confirmed that the mayor has resigned again, while IRGC-linked Fars news agency reported that the city council might name an acting mayor for the time being rather than appointing a new mayor.

Meanwhile, the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) quoted Council Chairman Mohsen Hashemi as saying that Najafi has informed the council that he will not be able to fulfill his responsibilities as his doctor is making preparations for a surgical operation on him.

The council is going to decide on the mayor’s second resignation on Tuesday April 10, said Hashemi. This comes while Council member Hojat Nazari told Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) that the council would not discuss the resignation before next week.

Previously, several Iranian news websites reported “the IRGC Intelligence Organization exerted pressure on Najafi to resign.”

Najafi has repeatedly spoken about “widespread illegal actions at the Tehran Municipality” under former conservative Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf. But when he said that he was planning to send some of these cases to Judiciary for investigation,

Tehran’s hardline Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi challenged Najafi to present his evidence to the Prosecutor’s Office “immediately.”

Meanwhile, the Tehran Prosecutor summoned Jafari to court in mid-March, after a video was released on social media showing Najafi at a Women’s Day ceremony where young girls were dancing.

Iran’s conservatives controlled the Tehran City Council for 14 years between 2003 and 2017. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the first Tehran Mayor elected by a conservative council in 2003. He took over as the country’s president within two years.

Qalibaf, who was defeated in the 2005 presidential election, took over as Tehran’s mayor in 2005 although he kept trying his luck as a presidential candidate in 2013 and 2017. His term of office as Mayor came to an end with reformist faction’s overwhelming victory in the council elections in March 2017, and Najafi replaced him in August. </s> After resignation of Tehran’s mayor on Monday for the second time, councilors mulled over the resignation process and agreed with it unanimously.

Of 21 votes in total, fifteen were in favor, five were against and one was blank.

After accepting resignation of Tehran's Mayor Mohammad Ali Najafi, councilors submitted their proposals until the selection of new mayor in an expert-level session. In the meantime, 14 councilors proposed appointment of Samiollah Hosseini Makarem as caretaker for this significant post at Tehran Municipality.

Eventually, Hosseini Makarem was appointed by councilors unanimously as caretaker of Tehran Municipality with 14 votes out of 21 votes cast.

Earlier, Hosseini Makarem served Deputy Municipality of Tehran for Financial and Economic Affairs.

It should be noted that City Council members on Sun. rejected the resignation submitted by Tehran’s mayor Mohammad Ali Najafi over 'ill health' and voted for his remaining in office.

A session was held on Sunday at the City Council, chaired by Mohsen Hashemi, to discuss the resignation of Tehran’s mayor Mohammad Ali Najafi.

Mr. Najafi handed in his resignation on March 14, citing medical reasons.

“What forced me to hand in my resignation from the City Council was my poor medical condition,” Najafi said during the session today, adding that he is currently undergoing treatment.

“I would like to ask you not to link my resignation to political issues, although intensifying factors are always there to exacerbate the case,” he added.

The Chairman Mohsen Hashemi, speaking before the voting, rejected rumors that the reason behind Najafi’s resignation was lack of support from the City Council, adding that the assumption was “unfair” and “untrue”. </s> Tehran City Council appointed Mohammad Ali Najafi as the new mayor of the Iranian capital city, Mehr reported.

During a July 19 session of Tehran City Council, seven candidates succeeded to win the necessary votes to compete for the post of mayor in Tehran, in which 66-year-old Mohammad Ali Najafi secured the highest number of votes, 21.

The pro-reform figure earlier served as the education minister, vice president and head of the Budget and Planning Organization.

Najafi will replace Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a conservative politician and critic of the Rouhani administration. </s> Mohhamad-Ali Najafi has been elected Thursday as Tehran mayor following a vote at the City Council as the Iranian capital city faces challenges ranging from traffic to air pollution.

Initially, there were seven candidates for the Tehran’s mayoral post, but the number was reduced to two after resignations.

The candidates had presented their programs for the city’s management to the council’s members and answered their questions.

Najafi, a reformist politician who had served for nine years as Iran’s education minister, will replace current Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf, who held the post for 12 years.

Najafi will begin his official four-year term as mayor on September 6 after the first session of the 5th Tehran City Council and another voting session.

Iranian people chose members of the 21-seat Tehran’s City Council in the May city and village council elections, which were held concurrent with the presidential poll. </s> The Tehran city council has elected a little-known technocrat to the politically sensitive post of mayor, Iranian state media report.

Pirouz Hanachi, 54, is the third mayor of Tehran to be elected since reformists swept the city-council elections in May 2017.

Hanachi's selection needs to be approved by the Interior Ministry within 10 days in a mostly procedural process.

Hanachi, an architecture professor at Tehran University, has previously served as deputy minister at the Roads and Urban Development Ministry.

He replaces Mohammad Ali Afshani, who came out of retirement to take the mayor's position in May but had to give up office after a law adopted in September banned retirees from holding official posts.

Afshani's predecessor, Mohammad Ali Najafi, who became mayor following the May 2017 polls, resigned in March citing health concerns.

With reporting by AP and AFP
Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Ali Najafi resigns from his post after eight months in the office. His last resignation was rejected by the City Council.