- Ghalibaf appears to be a key figure in Iranian foreign diplomacy.
- Iranian President Pezeshkian proposes Ghalibaf’s new role.
- Ghalibaf to coordinate Iran-China relations in all sectors.
TEHRAN: Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who recently became chief negotiator in negotiations with the United States, has been appointed to oversee relations with China, Iranian media reported on Sunday.
“Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf was recently appointed special representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran for Chinese affairs,” Tasnim News Agency ” reported, citing “informed sources”, with other media outlets carrying similar information.
Ghalibaf was appointed to the post at the suggestion of Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian and with the approval of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, according to Tasnim.
He “will coordinate various sectors of relations between Iran and China,” the statement added.
Fars News Agency said the late security chief Ali Larijani, killed in US-Israeli strikes on March 17, held a similar position.
Larijani oversaw the progress of negotiations with China, which resulted in a 25-year cooperation agreement in 2021.
After the February 28 outbreak of war with Israel and the United States, Ghalibaf became a central figure in high-stakes diplomacy during the single round of negotiations with the United States in April.
A number of senior Iranian officials, including former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, were assassinated during the war, which spread across the Middle East before a fragile ceasefire took hold on April 8.
Iran has in recent days allowed a number of Chinese ships to pass through the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a vital global energy channel that it had blocked since the start of the war.
The Revolutionary Guards said the ships transited after “an agreement on protocols for managing the Iran Strait.”
