Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator with the United States, met the head of the Hamas political bureau’s leadership council in Tehran on Sunday, July 5, and used the occasion to deliver a series of firm ideological declarations aimed at hardline domestic factions. Ghalibaf insisted that Iran would never recognise Israel and that the country’s ceasefire talks with Washington do not amount to peace. The statements came on the second day of state funeral ceremonies for slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Ghalibaf described the implementation of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding — the framework agreement signed between Iran and the United States on June 17 — as “difficult but doable,” while insisting the diplomatic track did not signal any shift in Iran’s foundational principles.
“There is no peace between us and the United States, and we will never recognise Israel,” Ghalibaf told state media, according to Roya News.
The statements carry specific weight given his position. Ghalibaf has led Iran’s negotiating team throughout the US-Iran talks process, sitting opposite US Vice President JD Vance at the Islamabad talks in April — the highest-level direct engagement between Washington and Tehran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. He signed the Islamabad Memorandum on Iran’s behalf.
Addressing the debate surrounding Iran’s diplomatic posture, Ghalibaf framed current negotiations as an extension of military strategy rather than a departure from it. “Diplomacy and negotiation must be able to untie military knots and consolidate the achievements of the fighters,” he said, adding that this objective was only achievable when a nation maintained absolute defensive readiness alongside any diplomatic engagement.
He revealed elements he said are contained in the agreement with the Trump administration, claiming Tehran had successfully secured explicit clauses guaranteeing the territorial integrity of regional states and mandating a halt to military operations targeting Iran’s allies within the so-called Axis of Resistance. These claims could not be independently verified. The Islamabad Memorandum’s publicly available text contains no formal accord on Iran’s ballistic missile programme or its network of regional allies, and makes no reference to Axis of Resistance forces by name.
The choice of the Hamas meeting as the venue for these declarations was itself a message. Ghalibaf used the appearance to address neighbouring Arab and Islamic governments, asserting that the current geopolitical situation had demonstrated the futility of relying on Western security arrangements. He claimed regional capitals were increasingly recognising that normalisation or strategic cooperation with Washington and Tel Aviv failed to guarantee their domestic security.
The address was calibrated toward Iran’s internal politics as much as any external audience. Ghalibaf has faced persistent criticism from hardline factions over his role in the ceasefire process. An Iranian lawmaker, Kamran Ghazanfari, said publicly last week that the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had given Ghalibaf three specific instructions — on April 4, April 18, and in early May — not to enter negotiations over nuclear matters, but that Ghalibaf proceeded regardless. Iran’s Assembly of Experts issued a statement in June calling the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz a strategic mistake and demanding that Iran’s nuclear programme be kept off the negotiating table entirely. The Institute for the Study of War reported a significant disagreement between Ghalibaf and IRGC Commander Ahmad Vahidi, with Ghalibaf favouring participation in negotiations and Vahidi opposing it.
The Islamabad Memorandum, signed on June 17 following months of ceasefire negotiations brokered by Pakistan and Qatar, waived US sanctions on Iranian oil exports for 60 days and outlined a framework for resolving the 2026 Iran war. The agreement’s 14-point structure addresses the Strait of Hormuz, sanctions relief, frozen Iranian assets, and Lebanon — but defers Iran’s nuclear programme and ballistic missiles to future talks scheduled to resume July 11. Iran has disputed several of the agreement’s terms publicly. Ghalibaf said $12 billion of the $24 billion in frozen Iranian assets would be released; US officials told CNN that no funds would be released until Iran fulfilled its commitments. Iran has also said it still intends to charge fees — though not formal tolls — for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, while the Trump administration has maintained the waterway should be permanently toll-free.
Lebanon remains the agreement’s most volatile fault line. Ghalibaf stated in an interview with Iranian state broadcaster IRIB last week that Lebanon is Iran’s “first priority” and “one of our red lines,” and that an end to fighting there was a prerequisite to moving forward. Israel, which is not a party to the Islamabad Memorandum and was not directly involved in its negotiation, has said it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah in Lebanon regardless of the agreement’s terms.
The Iran-US ceasefire came after nearly four months of war that began on February 28, when joint US-Israeli airstrikes killed Khamenei alongside other senior Iranian officials and military commanders. The strikes, launched under the name Operation Roaring Lion in Israel and Operation Epic Fury in the United States, were intended, the Trump administration stated, to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and to pursue regime change.
Background
The Islamabad Memorandum was signed remotely on June 17, with US President Donald Trump signing during dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Palace of Versailles following the G7 summit, and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signing in Tehran. The New York Times reported separately that Pezeshkian threatened to resign if new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei rejected the agreement with Washington. Ghalibaf first led Iran’s delegation at the Islamabad talks in April, a 21-hour session that initially failed to produce an agreement. The Islamabad Memorandum does not address Iran’s nuclear programme or ballistic missiles; these issues are deferred to the 60-day negotiation period, which US Vice President JD Vance told CNN would begin “soon.” Iran’s Assembly of Experts, Iran’s clerical oversight body, issued a statement in June 2026 calling for the assassination of Trump and Netanyahu as a religious duty.
What Happens Next
US-Iran negotiations are scheduled to resume July 11, at which point the 60-day formal negotiation window under the Islamabad Memorandum is expected to formally open. The talks are expected to address sanctions, frozen Iranian assets, nuclear downgrading, and Lebanon. According to Al Arabiya, the negotiations will cover all major outstanding issues, including Iran’s uranium stockpiles and the future of the Strait of Hormuz. The Soufan Center noted that the Lebanon conflict remains the most potent threat to the peace process, as the agreement’s first clause — calling for the immediate and permanent end to military operations on all fronts including Lebanon — remains in dispute between Iran and Israel. Whether Ghalibaf’s hardline public declarations on Sunday signal a narrowing of Iran’s negotiating position, or are primarily aimed at managing domestic hardliners, will become clearer when talks resume next week.
