Who Is Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf? Iran Speaker At Centre Of Trump's Iran Talks Claim

Last Updated:March 24, 2026, 00:31 IST

Ghalibaf has firmly rejected Trump's claim that the United States and Iran were engaged in “productive talks" to end the war, calling it a tactic to manipulate markets.

US President Donald Trump on Monday postponed his attacks he threatened against Iran for five days, announcing that the US was in talks with Tehran to end the ongoing war that has disrupted global oil markets and rattled consumers across the world.

Trump said his special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who had been negotiating with Iran before the war, had had discussions with a top “respected" Iranian official into the evening on Sunday, and would continue on Monday. “We ​have had very, very strong talks. We’ll see where they lead. We have major points of agreement, I would say, almost all points of agreement," he said.

“We’re dealing with the man who I believe is the most respected and the leader," Trump said. Sources told Reuters and The Jerusalem Post that Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the influential parliamentary speaker of Iran, was representing Iran and that talks on ending the war could be held in Pakistan as soon as this week.

ALSO READ: ‘Fake News To Manipulate Markets’: Iran Speaker Rejects Trump’s Claims Of ‘Productive Talks’

However, Ghalibaf on Monday firmly rejected Trump’s claim that the United States and Iran were engaged in “productive talks" to end the Middle East conflict and accused the US of manipulating markets to lower soaring oil prices.

“No negotiations have been held with the US, and fakenews is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped," Ghalibaf wrote on X. He added that the Iranian people demand “complete and remorseful punishment of the aggressors" and that all officials remain firmly behind their “supreme leader and people until this goal is achieved".

Who Is Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf?

Ghalibaf is believed to be widely influential in Iran’s clerical regime, as he served in important positions like the Mayor of Tehran and the speaker of the parliament. As the parliamentary speaker, Ghalibaf controls Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) and the Supreme Economic Coordination Council.

Ghalibaf was born in 1961 in the town of Torqabeh near Mashhad in what’s known today as the Khorasan-e Razavi Province. He joined the Basij militia and was deployed to fight the Iranian Kurdish rebels in the West. Later, he joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) after the Iran-Iraq war began in the 1980s and became one of its youngest commanders.

During the long war, he developed close ties with former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Qassem Soleimani, Esmail Ghaani and other top leaders of the IRGC. After Khamenei became the supreme leader in 1989, Ghalibaf became deputy commander of the Basij, and went on to lead two organs of the IRGC. Ghalibaf also served as the commander of the IRGC Air Force from 1997 to 2000.

ALSO READ: ‘Me And New Ayatollah’: Trump Talks About Joint Control Of Hormuz, Says Strait To Open ‘Very Soon’

Ghalibaf was later appointed as the chief of national police, and was instrumental in the regime’s suppression of dissent. He reportedly gave instructions to the police to open fire on student protesters and had ordered the arrest of several journalists and activists.

Ghalibaf’s name has also been linked to several corruption scandals, but his relationship with powerful officials has shielded him from prosecution. He unsuccessfully contested Iran’s presidential elections in 2005 and 2013

US-Iran War

As the war continued into its fourth week, Trump said the US and Iran were holding “productive talks", days after warning that Iranian power plants would be destroyed if Tehran failed to “fully open" the Strait of Hormuz to all shipping within 48 hours.

“They want very much to make a deal. We’d like to make deal, too. We’re going to get together today by probably phone, because it’s very hard to find a country. It’s very for them to get out, I guess. But we’ll, at some point, very soon meet. We’re doing a five-day period. We’ll see how that goes. And if it goes well, we’re going to end up with settling this. Otherwise, we’ll just keep bombing our little hearts out," he told reporters.

However, Iran’s state-run media denied reports of any negotiations. “There is no direct contact with Trump, not even through intermediaries. Trump retreated after hearing that our targets would be all power plants in West Asia," the Iranian state-affiliated Fars News Agency reported.

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