PARIS, April 17 -- Iran's speaker of parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has emerged as the key negotiator and most high-profile figure of the Islamic republic's leadership as it enters a new phase due to the US-Israeli war.

A pillar of the Iranian establishment for some three decades and one of its most prominent non-clerical figures, Ghalibaf, 64, has spearheaded the war effort and now leads the high-stakes negotiating process.

Ghalibaf survived more than five weeks of US-Israeli attacks on Iran that killed supreme leader Ali Khamenei, top security official Ali Larijani and a host of other key officials.

He also came into public view for the first time in weeks last weekend to lead the Iranian delegation in talks in Islamabad with th...