"L'homme le plus puissant du pays" : Qui est Ghalibaf, nouvel homme fort de l'Iran en guerre
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian Parliament, has emerged as the most prominent leader of the Islamic Republic after the assassination of many high-ranking officials, and appears to be playing a key role in conducting the war.
Experts say the power of this pillar of the establishment for nearly three decades has been further strengthened following the deaths of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and security chief Ali Larijani.
"This is the person who is likely in charge of overseeing the war effort and strategy," says Farzan Sabet, a researcher at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.
According to him, he has "strong trans-faction and institutional links" established during his time with the Revolutionary Guards, as head of the Tehran police, as mayor of the capital and as president of Parliament.
While Ali Khamenei's son and successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, presumably injured, has not appeared in public and has only released three written statements, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has been posting numerous messages on X and has given several interviews.
"We are in an unequal war, with an asymmetric configuration; we must act and use equipment specific to our culture, our means and our creativity," he told Iranian television on Wednesday.
However, undoubtedly aware of the threat to his own safety, he did not, unlike the late Ali Larijani, appear publicly at the rally in support of the Palestinian cause last Friday.
"The most powerful man in Iran today is probably Ghalibaf," said Arash Azizi, a professor at Yale University, because he is "a rare figure whose portfolio overlaps the military, security, and political functions of the regime."
Repression
At 64, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has accumulated extensive experience in both military and civilian roles.
Known for his fierce ambition, he ran for president several times without ever succeeding, notably in the 2005 election where he was ousted in favor of the ultraconservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
A skilled pilot, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf fought in the Iran-Iraq War from 1980 to 1988, rising through the ranks to reach the top of the military hierarchy in the late 1990s, when he became commander of the fledgling Aerospace Forces of the Revolutionary Guard.
He was subsequently appointed commander of the national police in 1999.
After his defeat in the 2005 presidential election, he was elected mayor of Tehran, a position he held for 12 years.
His supporters praised his pragmatic approach to municipal management, while his detractors highlighted the corruption allegations that had marred his term.
Human rights organizations have also accused him of playing a key role in the repression of mobilizations against the government, from the student protests of 1999 to the January demonstrations.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf was elected Speaker of Parliament in 2020, advocating for economic reforms and increased parliamentary oversight while remaining aligned with the core principles of the Islamic Republic.
He predicted that the war would reshape the Middle East, but not on Washington's terms. "The order that will emerge here will be different, but it will not be an order in which the will of the United States prevails," he said in a recorded video interview, broadcast by the Tasnim news agency and other media outlets.
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