Is This the Figure Trump is Targeting to Lead Iran?

US President Donald Trump is said to be considering Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf as a potential partner and future leader of Iran. Will Trump’s plan to make Ghalibaf the next leader of Iran come to fruition? According to Anadolu Agency on Tuesday (24/3), a Politico report, citing two administration officials, states that Ghalibaf is viewed by at least some in the White House as a reliable partner who could lead Iran and negotiate with the Trump administration in the next phase of the war. The officials said the White House is not yet ready to commit to any one person. “He is an interesting choice,” one administration official said, according to Politico. “He is one of the most influential… But we have to test him, and we can’t rush it.” Donald Trump stated on Monday (23/3) that there would be a “very serious regime change” in Iran. He added that the change has begun because “everyone has been killed” from the previous leadership. “They have really just started. Regime change will happen automatically, but we are dealing with some people who I think are very reasonable, very solid,” he said. According to Politico, one official said that Trump does not want to seize Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil centre, because he hopes the next leader will make a deal similar to the one made by then-Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, who took over after President Nicolas Maduro was captured in January. “It’s all about putting someone like Delcy Rodriguez in Venezuela that we said, ‘We will keep you there. We won’t remove you. You will work with us. You will give us a good deal, the first deal on oil,’” the official said as quoted. Ghalibaf Denies Negotiations with the US According to Al Jazeera, Mohammad Ghalibaf, the parliament speaker, has reportedly emerged as a central figure in negotiations with the US to end the war against Iran. Although US media reports suggest that Ghalibaf is the person in Tehran that the US wants to negotiate with, the senior leader said “no negotiations have taken place.” He also mocked Trump’s war tactics on social media. Ghalibaf had previously said on Monday (23/3) that “no negotiations” were being conducted with the United States after US President Donald Trump announced that talks were ongoing. “No negotiations have been conducted with the US, and fake news is being used to manipulate financial and oil markets and avoid the traps that ensnare the US and Israel,” Ghalibaf said in a post on X, as reported by AFP. Profile of Mohammad Ghalibaf According to Al Jazeera on Tuesday (24/3), Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the parliament speaker, has reportedly emerged as a central figure in negotiations with the US to end the war against Iran. Born in the city of Torqabeh in the northeast in 1961, Ghalibaf’s adolescence was shaped by the tumultuous 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. As a former Iranian Air Force pilot, Ghalibaf has held several important positions in the country’s government structure, including chief of police, mayor of Tehran, and since 2020, speaker of the Iranian parliament, a position previously held by Ali Larijani. Ghalibaf has also run for president several times but failed. More viewed as a hardliner, Ghalibaf came in third after Masoud Pezeshkian and second after Saeed Jalili in the 2024 election.