- Ghalibaf emerges as a key figure in Iran’s foreign diplomacy.
- Iranian President Pezeshkian proposes Ghalibaf’s new role.
- Ghalibaf will coordinate relations between Iran and China in all sectors.
TEHRAN: Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who recently emerged as the chief negotiator in talks with the United States, has been appointed to oversee relations with China, Iranian media reported on Sunday.
“Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has recently been appointed special representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran for China affairs,” tasnim news agency reported, citing “informed sources,” and other outlets published similar reports.
Ghalibaf was appointed to the position at the suggestion of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and with the approval of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mokhtaba Khamenei, according to Tasnim.
“He will coordinate various sectors of relations between Iran and China,” he added.
fars news agency He said the late security chief Ali Larijani, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes on March 17, held a similar position.
Larijani oversaw the progress of negotiations with China, which led to a 25-year cooperation agreement in 2021.
Following the outbreak of war on February 28 with Israel and the United States, Ghalibaf has emerged as a central figure leading high-stakes diplomacy in the single round of talks with the United States in April.
Several senior Iranian officials, including former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, were killed in the war, which spread across the Middle East before a fragile ceasefire was established on April 8.
In recent days, Iran has allowed several Chinese ships to pass through the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a vital global energy conduit that it had blocked since the war broke out.
The Revolutionary Guard said the ships transited after “an agreement on Iran Strait management protocols.”
