Mohammad Baqer Qualibaf, speaker of Iran's parliament and the country's lead negotiator in talks with the United States, has been appointed Tehran's special envoy for Chinese affairs, Iranian media reported Sunday.
Mohammad Baqer Qualibaf © CHE
Mohammad Baqer Qualibaf, speaker of Iran's parliament and the country's lead negotiator in talks with the United States, has been appointed Tehran's special envoy for Chinese affairs, Iranian media reported Sunday.
The appointment, proposed by President Massoud Pezeshkian and approved by Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, tasks Ghalibaf with coordinating the full spectrum of Iran-China relations, a role previously held by Ali Larijani, who was killed in an Israeli strike in March.
The timing is significant. China is Iran's largest trading partner and top buyer of its oil. As Donald Trump was visiting Beijing, Tehran announced it had allowed several Chinese vessels to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, sealed by Iran since the outbreak of the Middle East war, signalling that the Tehran-Beijing axis remains very much alive.
Qualibaf is no stranger to high-stakes diplomacy. In April, he led the Iranian delegation in talks with a US team headed by Vice President JD Vance in Islamabad, the highest-level exchange between the two countries since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
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