Iran’s parliament speaker is floated as a possible US contact in talks as war rages

Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, speaks during a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon, on Oct. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein, File) 2026-03-24T09:39:55Z DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Long before he became Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf went on a charm offensive for almost two decades, portraying himself as a hard-liner the West could do business with in the Islamic Republic . “I would like the West to change its attitude to Iran and trust Iran, and rest assured that there’s an attitude in Iran to advance issues through dialogue,” he told The Times newspaper of London in 2008.

With the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran in its fourth week, the 64-year-old pilot and former Revolutionary Guard commander has denied there have been talks with the United States amid reports that he was floated as Washington’s negotiating partner in talks.

Questions also remain as to what power Qalibaf has within Iran’s theocracy , shattered after the Feb. 28 Israeli airstrike that killed 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei .

Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba , now Iran’s new supreme leader, has backed Qalibaf through his repeated and failed presidential campaigns.

Still, multiple centers of power within Iran’s theocracy now likely vie for control of the Islamic Republic — and uncertainties remain over Mojtaba Khamenei’s status as he has yet to be seen after reportedly being wounded.

Meanwhile, Qalibaf has been tied to the crackdown against protesters calling for change within Iran’s government and has seen corruption allegations swirl around him during his time in office.

U.S.

President Donald Trump may just be looking for an Iranian version of Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez , who took over as the U.S. military seized former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January. “Many Iranians despise Ghalibaf; diplomats see him as pragmatic,” wrote analyst Michael Rubin, using a different transliteration for the politician’s last name. “Those diplomats confuse pragmatism with opportunism.

Ghalibaf is a survivor.

He sees in Trump someone who can help him achieve what late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei denied him: the presidency or some equivalent interim leadership role.” Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency, believed close to the Guard, on Tuesday described reports in Western media as a “political bomb” meant to put the country’s leaders in disarray. “Qalibaf was introduced as a negotiating party in order to prese

原文链接: AP News