Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has resigned from the country’s negotiating team with the United States, citing what Iranian‑linked media describe as “intervention” by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the diplomatic process. The move comes amid sharply contrasting positions within Iran’s top‑level leadership on how to proceed with US‑Iran talks during the 2026 Strait of Hormuz crisis, and has been reported by the Persian‑language channel N12, which cites internal deliberations around the negotiating file.
Ghalibaf, a former IRGC brigadier‑general who later became a senior conservative politician, had been leading Iran’s delegation in recent rounds of Pakistani‑mediated negotiations with US officials in Islamabad. According to sources cited by N12, the IRGC’s Supreme National Security Council‑backed leadership challenged Ghalibaf’s willingness to continue talks while the US maintained its naval blockade and kept open the threat of new strikes. This disagreement ultimately led Ghalibaf to step back from the negotiating team, with Tehran now considering a reorganisation of oversight for the talks under President Masoud Pezeshkian.
In public remarks, Ghalibaf has repeatedly insisted that Iran “will not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats,” and warned that continued pressure from Washington could prompt Tehran to unveil “new battlefield cards.” His departure from the negotiating team signals a hardening line within parts of Iran’s security‑political establishment, even as other institutions still express a conditional openness to diplomacy if the US ceases military posturing and lifts the blockade.