Iranian hard-liners are euphoric as President Hassan Rouhani is under increasing pressure from public opinion and losing credibility among voters, given the dire condition of the economy. But this state did not emerge overnight; rather, it is the result of a combination of US President Donald Trump’s policies and the well-devised plans of Rouhani's staunch opponents in Tehran.

This time, hard-liners don’t just want to weaken the moderate president but to push him out altogether. While such a step has been a taboo one in recent decades, the grounds for it were prepared in the aftermath of the May 2017 presidential elections, which led to the defeat of hard-line candidates. According to Abbas Salimi Namin, a moderate conservative, this plan is being led by hard-liners under the leadership of Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi. But Salimi Namin also said May 20 that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei opposes the endeavor, as he is against any government prematurely stepping down.

As Trump was approaching his May 12 deadline to decide whether to stay in the nuclear deal, Iranian hard-liners were proceeding with their own scheme for Rouhani's resignation or impeachment. These efforts may have been further triggered by the December 2017 protests across Iran. Those demonstrations first emerged in the northeastern city of Mashhad in the Khorasan Razavi province, where they were organized by hard-liners. But things quickly got out of their control. Khorasan Razavi is a hard-liner stronghold, with Friday prayer leader Ahmad Alamolhoda and his son-in-law Ebrahim Raisi — who was the primary candidate of the hard-liners in the 2017 presidential election — in effect ruling the strategic province.

Amid the protests in December, a number of conservative students at the University of Tehran on Jan. 1 wrote an open letter to Rouhani, asking for his resignation due to his lack of success in controlling unemployment and not fulfilling his electoral promises on various issues like filling the social gaps. Concurrently, as protests were continuing across the country, rumors circulated about Iranian lawmakers' request of Rouhani to resign.