Is this Iran's 'Delcy'? Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, the corrupt general turned politician apparently leading talks with the US

After U.S. President Trump revealed he had been conducting negotiations with a “respected” Iranian leader who is not the ayatollah, several media reports suggested that the mystery man is Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, currently speaker of the Iranian parliament.

“He’s a hot option,” an administration official told POLITICO, adding, “It’s all about installing someone like a Delcy Rodríguez in Venezuela that we say, ‘We’re going to keep you there… You’re going to work with us. You’re going to give us a good deal, a first deal on the oil.”

But Ghalibaf is an insider’s insider, long seen as deeply corrupt and highly ambitious, having tried to become president for over two decades.

His corruption is seen by some as an opening to turn him into Iran’s Delcy Rodriguez – but his connections with the IRGC and new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei suggest that Ghalibaf has a hard, ideological core, and is more likely to lead the regime into a new, but no less radical phase as a strongman, rather than into moderation.

Diplomats seeing Ghalibaf as pragmatic “confuse pragmatism with opportunism,” warns Michael Rubin of the Middle East Forum.

“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.”

Like most non-clerics in the regime, Ghalibaf owes his rise into the leading ranks of the revolution to his military career in the IRGC. He began serving in the 1980 war between Iran and Iraq at age 19, rising to become commander of Nasr Division in 1983.

He established crucial, close relations with future supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who, like him, is from Mashhad. According to the United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) think tank, Khamenei often visited the Fifth Nasr Division during the war.

Ghalibaf’s deputy at the time, Esmail Qaani, is the current commander of the IRGC Quds Force. He also had close relations with Qaani’s predecessor, the legendary Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani.

Precisely. And just to contextualize who this new “moderate” is, check out this older image of who he is consoling: IRGC-QF Chief Qassem Soleimani. https://t.co/BaclxWuUbC pic.twitter.com/qv6UcP1o4R

— Behnam Ben Taleblu بهنام بن طالب لو (@therealBehnamBT) March 23, 2026

“He is an 'insider' in a way few other politicians are,” Dr. Raz Zimmt, a leading Iran expert and researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), told the Jerusalem Post.

“Unlike the clerical moderates of the past, Ghalibaf has the ‘Soleimani connection.’ He was a peer and close associate of the late Qasem Soleimani, which gives him a level of credibility with the IRGC that a civilian could never achieve.”

He then went on to become commander of the IRGC’s Khatam al-Anbiya Command as well as its Aerospace Force, rising to the rank of Brigadier General before becoming chief of the Police Command of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

There, Ghalibaf improved the regime’s oppression apparatus and led the crackdown on student protests. In a leaked tape, he is heard bragging to members of the Basij militia about how he ordered police to fire at student demonstrators and how he beat protesters with sticks with his own hands, despite already being a senior commander.

But he wanted to rise even higher, launching the first of his unsuccessful presidential runs in 2005 before becoming mayor of Tehran, during which time he tried to portray himself as a moderate in the West.

In 2020, he became speaker of the parliament, a position he has since continued to hold. During his tenure, he has been accused of several corruption and embezzlement scandals, to the point that UANI said some to call him “the most corrupt commander” in Iran.

However, according to Zimmt, “in the context of the Middle East, that sometimes means he is a man you can actually do business with. He understands the language of power and interests, rather than just pure religious dogma.”

His policy record as speaker is that of a pure hardliner, including legislation strengthening morality laws and enforcement against dissenters and protesters.

The combination of deep military experience and connections, coupled with his years in the political arena, has made Ghalibaf a serious contender for the first rank of leadership in Iran.

Over the past months, slain supreme leader Ali Khamenei reportedly gave him significant authority over military matters while Larijani focused on political and diplomatic aspects.

With the assassination of dozens of other senior leaders, Ghalibaf may be the most prominent name left in the regime.

Sources told the Jerusalem Post that he is now “practically leading Iran.” Throughout the war, he has been among the most vocal Iranian leaders, threatening the U.S. and Israel and vowing not to surrender.

Qalibaf’s denial is likely rooted in trying to keep his hardline edge at home while the regime remains embattled. Lest we forget, just a month ago he donned an IRGC uniform and led “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” chants in the parliament w/ MPs. https://t.co/Bf8IPbkXzt pic.twitter.com/OsbTht4sKB

— Behnam Ben Taleblu بهنام بن طالب لو (@therealBehnamBT) March 23, 2026

In fact, he has even denied that talks with the U.S. have taken place, though that might either be a distraction or a way to maintain his hardline image for internal consumption.

Crucially for Israel, Ghalibaf has praised Hamas’s October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre and maintained close relations with the IRGC terror proxies across the region.

According to UANI, he is also a longtime ally of new leader Mojtaba Khamenei, indicating hardline, ideological support for the IRGC project of establishing regional dominance – not a positive sign that Ghalibaf will emerge as a new moderate leader for Iran.