Qalibaf: The man quietly taking control as Iran's leadership burns

Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, is taking a more central role as Israeli and U.S. strikes pick off the Islamic Republic's political leadership, making him a critical figure at a decisive moment.

With fewer of Iran's most prominent figures remaining, the former Revolutionary Guards commander, Tehran mayor, national police chief and presidential candidate is now a key node between the political, security and clerical elites.

Nearly three weeks after the sudden assault on Iran began with the killing of then Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leadership in Tehran is engaged in a bitter attritional effort to outlast its assailants.

Qalibaf, long seen as a protégé of Khamenei and a confidant of his son Mojtaba who has succeeded to the position of supreme leader, has been a leading voice of defiance against Israel and the United States, vowing revenge for their attack.

Addressing U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the killing of Khamenei, he promised "such devastating blows that you will be begging".

"I say to these two dirty criminals and their agents: you have stepped on our red line and you have to pay for it," he declared in a television speech.

That fiery rhetoric reflects his longstanding position as a fierce disciple of the Islamic Republic's theocratic system of government, a stance he has also demonstrated through helping to crush displays of internal dissent.

Yet despite that hardline profile, Qalibaf has also built a reputation as a moderniser and pragmatist, posing during his 2005 presidential run in his uniform as a qualified pilot for campaign adverts to bolster his image as a professional.

A THREATENED COUP

Born in the northeastern town of Torqabeh in 1961, Qalibaf's early life was partly shaped by lectures he attended in mosques as a teenager, according to Iranian media, as the 1979 Islamic Revolution gathered steam.

When Iraq invaded Iran months after the ruling shah was ousted, he joined the Revolutionary Guards, a new military unit devoted to upholding the country's new Islamic system, rising to become a general within three years.

Pursuing a career with the Guards after the war ended, he qualified as a military pilot and eventually became head of the Guards' air force unit.

While with the Guards, he took part in a bloody crackdown on university students in 1999 and joined other commanders in signing a letter to the reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, threatening to oust him if he did not curb protests.

Khamenei, caught between growing discontent at home and foreign pressure over Iran's nuclear programme, increasingly turned to security hawks like Qalibaf as the reformist movement ran out of steam.

As police chief he could be ruthless - ordering his forces to fire on protesters in 2002 - while trying to court modernisers by smartening up the dishevelled police with new uniforms.

Yet when he ran for president in 2005, trying to appeal to middle- and lower-income voters, his populist credentials were outdone by the firebrand Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Khamenei eventually swung his support away from his favoured former general to the new man.

Qalibaf never stopped seeking the presidency, running unsuccessfully in 2013 and 2024, and pulling out of the 2017 race to avoid splitting the hardline vote.

He replaced Ahmadinejad as Tehran mayor, holding the post for 12 years and taking credit for helping suppress months of unrest that rocked the establishment after his predecessor was declared winner of a disputed election in 2009.

His 12-year stint as mayor was followed by his return to national politics with his election to parliament and installation as speaker in 2020, giving him one of the top posts in Iranian politics.