Quds Force chief’s low-profile Baghdad visit highlights Iran's strategic pivot
In a brief Baghdad visit, Iranian Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani sought to mend Iraq's fractured Shiite bloc and restore Tehran's faltering regional influence, signaling its urgent recalibration after major setbacks in Lebanon, Gaza and Syria.
TEHRAN — Brig. Gen. Esmail Qaani, commander of Iran's Quds Force, quietly landed in Baghdad this week for a short visit, of which few images or official statements have surfaced.
Despite the secrecy surrounding it, Qaani's trip involved meetings with leaders of Iraq's Shiite Coordination Framework, an umbrella of pro-Iran factions that form the ruling alliance, as he sought to advance a larger Iranian campaign to prevent its most reliable regional partner from splintering ahead of Iraq's parliamentary elections on Nov. 11.
According to Iranian state media outlets as well as the Qatari-funded Al-Araby al-Jadeed website, Qaani met senior militia leaders and political figures to urge restraint in both rhetoric and action. He called on the key actors to avoid media feuds and internal rivalries that could weaken the bloc's dominance or be seen as a threat to Iraq's stability.
The Quds Force commander's mission came at a critical time. The influential cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has called for an election boycott, leaving the Coordination Framework — dominated by figures such as Nouri al-Maliki, Hadi al-Amiri, and Qais al-Khazali — as the default Shiite power broker. But the alliance is far from unified. Rivalries over corruption, armed group control and ties with Iran have grown more ferocious, while public frustration with political gridlock has deepened. Thus, Qaani made the visit to keep the house in order.
