Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf

Who is Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf?

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf or Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf is an Iranian conservative politician, professor, a former Air Force and a Pilot of Iran Air and police commander. He is the 55th and current Mayor of Tehran, serving his third term since his first election in 2005. He was a candidate in the 2013 presidential election but lost to Hassan Rouhani, in second place with 6,077,292 of the votes. He was also a candidate in the 2005 presidential election.

He holds a Ph.D. in political geography from Tarbiat Modares University. He is also a pilot, certified to fly certain Airbus aircraft. He began his military career during the Iran-Iraq war in 1980. He became chief commander of Imam Reza troops in 1982 and was chief commander of Nasr Troops from 1983 to 1984. After the end of the war, he became Managing-Director of Khatam al-Anbia, an engineering firm controlled by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and was appointed as commander of the Iranian Air Force in 1996 by Ali Khamenei. Four years later, he became chief of the Iranian Police Forces after the previous commander was dismissed following the 1999 student protests. He was also appointed as Representative of President Mohammad Khatami during a campaign to combat smuggling in 2002. In September 2005, he was elected as Tehran's mayor by the City Council of Tehran. He is also a professor at the University of Tehran.