(Bloomberg) --
Iranian lawmakers elected Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf as parliament's next speaker, a return to high office for a hardliner who merged support for talks with the West with strident criticism of the more moderate leadership of President Hassan Rouhani.
Qalibaf, a former police chief who has also served as mayor of Tehran and air force commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, succeeded influential conservative Ali Larijani.
Larijani was appointed to the Expediency and Discernment Council, which advises Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and resolves disputes between the Islamic Republic's political chambers, Iranian state TV reported, citing a directive written by Khamenei.
Qalibaf takes over a parliament elected in February and dominated by ultra-conservatives at a time when Iran is battling a major coronavirus outbreak with an economy severely weakened by U.S. sanctions.
Iran's Rouhani Urges Hardline Parliament to Show ‘Brotherhood'
A veteran of the Iran-Iraq war, he presents himself as a modernizing, hands-on manager. While he's sometimes been an opponent of Rouhani, he supported the nuclear talks with the U.S. and was broadly in favor of the subsequent accord.
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