Iranian lawmakers handed Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf a seventh straight term as speaker of parliament on Monday. He took 235 of the 271 ballots cast, according to Iranian media reports.
Two challengers trailed far behind. Mohammad Taqian Naqdali received 29 votes and Osman Salari 7. Five ballots were left blank. In all, 276 voting cards had been distributed among lawmakers.
The vote, held for the presiding board of the Islamic Consultative Assembly’s third legislative year, also brought a change in method. Lawmakers cast their choices through direct electronic voting boxes, replacing the paper ballots used in earlier speaker elections.
A figure at the center of the talks
Ghalibaf is a former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and a former mayor of Tehran. He has stood out since the regional war began on February 28, taking a lead role in indirect negotiations with Washington. He was also appointed Iran’s special envoy to China.
His visibility grew after he led Iran’s delegation in direct talks with the U.S. in Islamabad on April 11 and 12, a rare face-to-face meeting aimed at stabilizing a shaky ceasefire. Several senior officials with long experience had been killed in U.S.-Israeli strikes by then, and Ghalibaf was left among the most senior people linking parliament to security circles.
Judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, a hardliner, congratulated him on X. He praised Ghalibaf for waging “jihad both in the field and in diplomacy” in last year’s 12-day war with Israel and in this year’s conflict.
Factions and the US talks
The election fell at a delicate time. Indirect talks between Tehran and Washington are picking up pace while divisions over foreign policy widen.
Ilna news agency reported coordinated pressure campaigns against Ghalibaf before the ballot. It quoted MP Rouhollah Lak Aliabadi as saying opponents tried to paint backing for U.S. talks as political deviation, although diplomacy is the supreme leader’s domain. Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei holds that post.
Ghalibaf is generally linked with a pragmatic line on outside pressure as sanctions and regional escalation bite. Hardliners close to the IRGC doubt any deal is worth making, citing open questions on sanctions relief, uranium enrichment limits and the Strait of Hormuz.
Donald Trump has sounded cautiously hopeful about an agreement. American officials say the broad outline of a deal has moved forward.
Sources
- Ghalibaf re-elected as Iran parliament speaker for seventh term
- Ghalibaf re-elected as Iran's Parliament Speaker as tensions rise over US talks | The National
