Is Tehran trying to distance Qasem Soleimani from Iraq?
The recent visit of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to Iraq has been read as attempt to distance Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani from Iraq, replacing him with the Foreign Ministry.
As more factions within Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) are being designated as terrorists by the US administration on account of their close ties with the Iranian side, Tehran is moving toward pulling the Iraqi file from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and leaving it with the Foreign Ministry, local reports say.
This reported shift in Iranian policy would seek to address a number of critical concerns — none more important, perhaps, than protecting the PMU, which is striving to repurpose itself as a fully-fledged security institution, especially after Washington explicitly told Iranian authorities that supporting militias in Iraq must come to end as part of 12 requirements outlined by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in November for the lifting of US sanctions.
Ever since, Iran’s fundamentalist and reformist spectrums have clashed over the causes and pathways out of the sanctions crisis. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif’s Feb. 25 resignation announcement could be read as his way of protesting the apparatus of the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist (Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei) and its overwhelming influence over Iran’s foreign relations, whereas his agreeing to continue in his post was the result of Khamenei having the IRGC cede control of the very same file in favor of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s government, who was afforded wider powers with respect to handling and developing Tehran’s foreign relations. This, seemingly, was to the liking of Iraq’s highest Shiite authority, Ali al-Sistani, who agreed to meet Rouhani at his home in Najaf after refusing to meet with the IRGC's Quds Force leader Qasem Soleimani on numerous occasions.
In his March 11-13 visit to Iraq, Rouhani made sure to meet with the majority of the Iraqi leadership, including PMU commanders who enjoy cordial relations with Soleimani. Those included, most notably, Falih Alfayyadh, chairman of the PMU, and his aide Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. “The PMU serves a critical role in bolstering Iraq’s national solidarity,” Rouhani stressed.
