The Iranian official, who has been talked about as a potential interlocutor with the Trump administration, once boasted that he personally beat protesters as a young police commander in the Islamic Republic.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has never been shy about his role in suppressing challenges to the Islamic Republic.
“There are photos available of me riding on the back of a motorcycle and hitting (protesters) with a wooden stick…I was one of those people who were doing the beatings on the streets and I’m proud of that,” Ghalibaf is heard saying in a 2013 audio recording about protests years ago.
In recent weeks, he has emerged as one of the most senior civilian survivors of a U.S. and Israeli operation that has killed many of Iran’s leaders, joining a dwindling number of officials now shaping Iran’s response.
For Ghalibaf, 64, the security of the Islamic Republic has always been a top priority. His public statements emphasize resistance, national strength, and the need to stand up to external pressure rather than compromise.
It is therefore no surprise that he is now issuing almost daily declarations via social media against the United States and Israel.
President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States is having “very strong talks” in Iran and is “doing business with the most respected person” there, without naming that person.
“We’re dealing with some people who I think are very reasonable and very solid,” Trump told CNN’s Caitlan Collins. “The people within the company know who they are and are highly respected. Maybe one of them will be exactly the person we’re looking for.”
According to some reports, he was referring to Ghalibaf, who within hours denied there had been any negotiations between Iran and the United States.
“There are no negotiations with the US, and fake news is being used to manipulate financial and oil markets and get the US and Israel out of the quagmire they are in,” he wrote on X.
Throughout the conflict, he has regularly used social media to troll Trump and take a hard line on Iran’s terms for ending the war.
“Certainly, we are not calling for a ceasefire. We believe that the aggressor should be punished and taught a lesson that will deter him from attacking Iran again,” he told X on March 10.
Ghalibaf was a prominent figure even before the outbreak of war, warning that such conflicts would spread throughout the region.
“Any war in the region will not last long and will not be limited to a single party or a specific region,” Ghalibaf told CNN’s Frederic Preitgen in late January.
Experts say he has connections throughout the regime’s centers of influence and could play a key role in a negotiated settlement.
“He is the one running the show,” said Hamidreza Azizi of the German Institute for International Security Affairs.
Azizi added that Ghalibaf is more interested in power than ideology and sometimes exhibits Machiavellian overtones. “For him, the ends justify the means,” he told CNN, noting that his views on the economy and other issues have changed over the years.
Through his lifelong service to the Islamic Republic, Ghalibaf became a consummate regime insider, loyal to the 1979 Islamic Revolution 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.
This marked the beginning of a lifelong relationship with the Revolutionary Guards, which developed into a powerful force suppressing domestic opposition and projecting Iranian influence abroad.
Ghalibaf later commanded the Revolutionary Guards Air Force and boasts of his skills as a pilot. A video from October 2024 shows him in the cockpit of a plane approaching Beirut amid Israeli airstrikes.
Azizi described him as an official who puts “safety first” above all else.
Ghalibaf was involved in putting down the 1999 reformist student protests and was one of the Revolutionary Guards commanders who warned then-reformist President Mohammad Khatami that the riots threatened national security and could force the intervention of the Guards. As police chief in 2003, he oversaw the suppression of further student demonstrations and served as a senior security official during the widespread protests following the contentious 2009 election.
But Ghalibaf also has a reputation as a capable executive, thanks to his 12 years as Tehran’s mayor, during which time he modernized the capital’s infrastructure and oversaw ambitious housing projects and the creation of green spaces.
Azizi, who was living in Tehran at the time, said Ghalibaf projected an image of being a competent manager.
However, his tenure as mayor was plagued by repeated allegations of corruption, and allegations of corruption resurfaced four years ago when his family came under intense scrutiny over large amounts of assets they had declared overseas.
Ghalibaf has long harbored ambitions for higher office. He unsuccessfully ran for president several times, ultimately splitting the conservative vote. In last year’s election, it finished in third place by a wide margin with about 14% of the vote.
His power base has instead been Iran’s parliament, which he has chaired 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 continued to work closely with Ayatollah Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guards, at times clashing with other conservative figures, including former President Ibrahim Raisi. He was an early supporter of Khamenei’s son Mojtaba, who is now succeeding his father, even when the younger Khamenei was considered a long way from the role.
Ghalibaf also has ties to the new supreme leader through his family. He was a relative of Mojtaba’s mother, who died from wounds sustained in the Israeli attack that killed her husband on February 28.
If he were to take on the task of negotiating on behalf of Iran, his track record shows he would seek deterrence and strength rather than compromise.
