Trump says US talking with ‘respected’ figure in Iran. It may be a war veteran with a record of suppressing dissent

By Tim Lister, Leila Gharagozlou, CNN (CNN) — 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