Trump says US talking with ‘respected’ figure in Iran. It may be a war veteran with a record of suppressing dissent

(CNN) — The Iranian official talked of as a potential interlocutor with the Trump administration once boasted that he personally beat protesters as a young police commander in the Islamic Republic.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of the Iranian parliament, has never been shy about his role in suppressing challenges to the Islamic Republic.

“Photographs of me are available showing me on back of a motor bike…beating (the protesters) with wooden sticks…I was among those carrying out beatings on the street level and I am proud of that,” Ghalibaf is heard saying in an audio recording from 2013 about protests years earlier.

In recent weeks, as the US-Israeli campaign has killed many of Iran’s top leaders, he has emerged as one of the most senior surviving civilian figures, part of a shrinking pool of officials now shaping the country’s response.

For the 64-year-old Ghalibaf, the security of the Islamic Republic has always been the overriding priority. His public remarks emphasize resistance, national strength, and the need to confront external pressure rather than compromise.

Little surprise then that he is now issuing declarations almost daily through social media in defiance of the United States and Israel.

President Donald Trump said Monday that the US was having “very strong talks” and was “dealing with the man who is most respected” in Iran, but declined to name him.

“We’re dealing with some people that I find to be very reasonable, very solid,” Trump told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. “The people within know who they are, they’re very respected, and maybe one of them will be exactly what we’re looking for.”

Some reports said he was referring to Ghalibaf, who within hours denied there were any negotiations between Tehran and Washington.

He posted on X: “No negotiations have been held with the US, and fake news is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped.”

Throughout the conflict, he has regularly used social media to goad Trump and demonstrate a hard line on Iran’s conditions for ending the war.

“Certainly we aren’t seeking a ceasefire. We believe the aggressor must be punished and taught a lesson that will deter them from attacking Iran again,” he said on X on March 10.

Ghalibaf was also prominent before the war broke out, warning that such a conflict would spread across the region.

“Any war in the region would not be short-lived and would not be confined to a single party or a specific geography,” Ghalibaf told CNN’s Frederik Pleitgen in late January.

Experts say he has connections across the regime’s centers of influence that would afford him a critical role in any negotiated settlement.

“He is the guy running the show,” said Hamidreza Azizi at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

Ghalibaf is less interested in ideology than power and shows a Machiavellian touch at times, says Azizi added. “For him, the ends justify the means,” he told CNN, pointing to his shifting perspectives through the years on economic and other issues.

Across a lifetime of service to the Islamic Republic, Ghalibaf has become the consummate regime insider, unfailingly loyal to the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and supportive of its regional ambitions.

As a teenager, he joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

That marked the start of a lifelong association with the IRGC, which has evolved into a powerful force to suppress dissent at home and project Iran’s influence abroad.

Ghalibaf later commanded the IRGC’s air force and has boasted about his skills as a pilot. A video from October 2024 shows him at the controls of an aircraft approaching Beirut amid Israeli air strikes.

Security first

Azizi described him as above all a “security first” official.

Ghalibaf was involved in crushing of pro-reform student protests in 1999 and was among IRGC commanders who warned then-President Mohammad Khatami, a reformist, that the unrest threatened national security and could force the Guards to intervene. He oversaw the suppression of further student demonstrations in 2003 as police chief and held a senior security role during the widespread protests that followed the disputed 2009 election.

Yet Ghalibaf also has a reputation as an effective manager thanks to a 12-year stint as mayor of Tehran, during which he modernized the capital’s infrastructure and oversaw ambitious housing programs as well as the creation of green spaces.

Azizi, who lived in Tehran at the time, said Ghalibaf projected an image of managerial competence.

But his tenure as mayor was dogged by frequent allegations of corruption, which resurfaced four years ago when his family came under scrutiny over substantial assets declared abroad.

Ghalibaf has long harbored ambitions for higher office. He ran unsuccessfully for the presidency several times but ended up splitting the conservative vote. In last year’s election, he finished a distant third, with around 14% of the vote.

His power base has instead become Iran’s parliament, where he has served as speaker since 2020, thanks in part to the support of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an airstrike on the first day of the war.

Throughout his career, Ghalibaf has remained closely aligned with Khamenei and the IRGC, and has at times clashed with other conservative figures, including former President Ibrahim Raisi. He was an early supporter of Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba, who has now succeeded his father, even when the younger Khamenei was considered a long shot for the role.

Ghalibaf is also tied to the new supreme leader through family. He is a relative of Mojtaba’s mother, who died of injuries sustained in the Israeli strike that killed her husband on February 28.

If he does take on the mantle of negotiating on behalf of Iran, his record shows that he will pursue deterrence and strength rather than compromise.

The-CNN-Wire
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