Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf (center) and Abbas Araghchi are expected to attend peace talks in Switzerland. Here you can see the two at peace talks in Islamabad in April.Image: EPA IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY
It can currently be assumed that two high-profile representatives of Tehran will travel to Switzerland on Friday: Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf and Abbas Araghchi. Who are the two?
June 18, 2026, 5:07 p.mJune 18, 2026, 5:07 p.m
Michael Wrase, Limassol / ch media
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf: The unpopular self-promoter
With the Iranian delegation leader Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, one of the most famous self-promoters in Iran is coming to Switzerland. The former commander of the Revolutionary Guard Air Force completed pilot training in the 1990s, which qualified him to fly Airbus aircraft.
He even appeared in presidential election campaigns wearing the white pilot’s uniform in order to distinguish himself as an energetic doer from the pale guild of clerics. However, he was unable to win the hearts of Iranians with his often goofy performances.
Nevertheless, Iranian state propaganda has now taken up the pilot motif again: on government channels there is talk of “Captain Ghalibaf” who “negotiates with the same sure hand with which he once landed Iran Air’s airliners.”
The Iranian historian Arash Azizi says: “Ghalibaf is one of the last survivors of the old regime who has what it takes to be a leading figure.” For him, “a lifelong dream is coming true.”
Considered a rooster by many Iranians: Mohammad Bagher GhalibafImage: EPA
The 64-year-old Ghalibaf was only able to become one of the most powerful men in Iran after the targeted killing of Ali Larijani. The acting speaker of parliament is responsible for the strategic line, while the commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guards, Ahmad Vahidi, leads the military front and President Pezeshkian manages day-to-day operations.
Unlike Vahidi, who still rejects the impending negotiated solution with the USA, Ghalibaf has developed from an initially strict opponent to a supporter of talks with the USA – a pragmatic shift that is as revealing for his political survival as it is for the internal balance of power in the Islamic Republic.
Abbas Araghchi: The shrewd hardliner
While Ghalibaf, as the regime’s political heavyweight, is supposed to symbolize the reliability of the deal with the long-time American archenemy, it is Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi who is responsible for the diplomatic work. Hardly any top Iranian diplomat sits at the negotiating table with the West longer and, above all, with more experience than him. Born in 1962, the son of a carpet dealer took part in the Islamic Revolution as a teenager.
In the 1980s he fought in the ranks of the Revolutionary Guards in the war against Iraq. It is this biographical footnote that to this day gives Araghchi domestic political legitimacy as a loyalist to the system – even if his actual career was shaped on the diplomatic stage. As deputy to former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Araghchi was involved in the Vienna negotiations that led to Iran’s nuclear deal with the West in 2015. He also led the renegotiations when the US withdrew from the deal under Trump.
He helped negotiate the 2015 nuclear deal for Iran: Abbas Araghchi.Image: EPA
In August 2024, President Pezeshkian appointed Araghchi as foreign minister. The goal was clear: the career diplomat, who trained as a political scientist at the University of Kent, was supposed to repair the relationship with Europe and look for ways for a critical dialogue with Washington. Araghchi, who speaks Arabic, English and Japanese fluently in addition to Persian, now fills exactly this role.
The conservative Iranian daily newspaper “Khorasan”, which is close to Ghalibaf, warns against too much closeness. She wrote on Wednesday that Iranian officials should not take a photo with US representatives in Switzerland or shake their hands. It was said that Washington was looking for exactly such images. (schweiztoday.ch)
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