Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf was re-elected as Speaker of Iran's Parliament on Monday, extending his tenure as one of the country's most influential political figures for another year.
Mr Ghalibaf received 235 votes, ahead of hardliner Mohammad Taghi Naghdi Ali on 29 and another legislator, Othman Salari, on seven, with five blank votes, the Isna news agency reported.
“The number of ‘noisy radicals’ in parliament has been determined: only 29 people,” the reformist-leaning Entekhab newspaper wrote on X, in a post reflecting factional tension within the chamber.
The vote handing him the role for a seventh consecutive year was carried out at a politically sensitive moment in Iran, as indirect talks between Tehran and Washington gain momentum and divisions sharpen over foreign policy.
A former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and mayor of Tehran, Mr Ghalibaf has emerged as a key figure since the regional war began on February 28. He has taken a lead role in indirect negotiations with Washington and was also appointed Iran’s special envoy to China.
Mr Ghalibaf's profile rose after he led the Iranian delegation in direct talks with the US in Islamabad on April 11 and 12, a rare face-to-face engagement aimed at stabilising a fragile ceasefire framework.
It came after the deaths of several senior officials with decades of experience in US-Israeli strikes during the war, leaving him among the most senior remaining figures straddling both parliamentary and security-linked networks.
His re-election strengthens his position as a central parliamentary power broker, as foreign policy debates increasingly shape domestic political alignments. In the run-up to the vote, the Ilna news agency reported there were co-ordinated pressure campaigns against him, including messaging efforts aimed at politicians before the ballot was held.
The report quoted one MP, Rouhollah Lak Aliabadi, as saying rivals were trying to portray support for talks with the US as political deviation, despite diplomacy falling under the authority of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.
The tensions reflect wider uncertainty within the country's conservative establishment as negotiations with the US continue.
Mr Ghalibaf has been associated with a more pragmatic approach to managing external pressure, particularly as Iran comes under increasing strain from sanctions and regional escalation. But hardline figures close to the IRGC remain sceptical of any deal with the US, pointing to unresolved disputes over sanctions relief, uranium enrichment limits and issues such as the Strait of Hormuz.
US President Donald Trump has been cautiously optimistic about the potential for an agreement with Tehran, while American officials say progress has been made on the broad outline for a deal.
