Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran's parliament speaker and chief negotiator in talks with the United States, is facing perhaps the greatest political test of his career. His battlefield record accelerated his rise through the military ranks, and by the 1990s he had held several senior IRGC positions before being appointed commander of the IRGC Air Force. As commander of the IRGC Air Force, Ghalibaf was among 24 senior IRGC commanders who signed a strongly worded letter warning then-President Mohammad Khatami against tolerating further unrest. A year later, at just 39, he was appointed chief of Iran's Law Enforcement Forces (Naja), becoming one of the country's youngest senior security officials. According to a conservative source familiar with the relationship, Soleimani privately backed Ghalibaf's 2013 presidential bid.