The Iranian official talked of as a potential interlocutor with the Trump administration once boasted that he personally beat protesters as a young police commander in the Islamic Republic.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of the Iranian parliament, has never been shy about his role in suppressing challenges to the Islamic Republic.
“Photographs of me are available showing me on back of a motor bike…beating (the protesters) with wooden sticks…I was among those carrying out beatings on the street level and I am proud of that,” Ghalibaf is heard saying in an audio recording from 2013 about protests years earlier.
In recent weeks, as the US-Israeli campaign has killed many of…