TEHRAN - Iranian MPs decided to drop the motion to impeach Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi after Salehi accepted the resignation of the newly appointed deputy foreign minister for administrative and financial affairs, Mohammad Sharif Malekzadeh, on Tuesday.

Salehi also appointed Behrouz Kamalvandi, the deputy foreign minister for the Americas, to the post.
On Sunday, lawmakers started a campaign to impeach Salehi if he did not dismiss Malekzadeh. MPs had cited the appointment of Malekzadeh as deputy foreign minister as the reason for their decision to impeach Salehi.
Some of the Majlis representatives said Malekzadeh is allied with the deviant current, which is associated with Esfandiar Rahim Mashaii.
On Sunday, an impeachment motion, signed by 33 MPs, was submitted to the Majlis Presiding Board. However, the situation changed when Malekzadeh resigned.
Part of the impeachment proposal read, “The appointment of Mohammad Sharif Malekzadeh… as deputy foreign minister for administrative and financial affairs, will jeopardize foreign interests of the system due to his not very good background.”
However, MP Hossein Sobhaninia of the Majlis Presiding Board told the Fars news agency that the lawmakers who put forward the motion have not yet requested the withdrawal of the impeachment motion.
He added that if the MPs do not announce the withdrawal of the impeachment motion to the presiding board over the next few days, the foreign minister will be impeached.
MP Ahmad Tavakkoli and some other MPs said Salehi himself should have dismissed Malekzadeh before he tendered his resignation.