February 15, 2019
Foreign Policy magazine has chosen one Iranian for its 2019 list of the 100 most important Global Thinkers.
He is Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleymani, the commander of Iran’s Qods Force, the external arm of the Pasdaran, who led the list of 10 in the defense and security segment of the magazine’s list.
The brief write-up said: “Qasem Soleymani has led Iran’s covert military efforts for two decades now, but his role has never been larger than it is today. Soleymani’s fingerprints are everywhere that Iran is active, from Yemen to Iraq to Syria. He has also become the public face of Iran’s response to US President Donald Trump’s threats. ‘We are near you, where you can’t even imagine,’ Soleymani warned in July 2018. ‘We are ready’.”
Soleymani was followed on the defense and security list by German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen. No American official appeared on the defense and security list.
The most famous people on this year’s list of 100 are Chancellor Angela Merkel and former US President Barack Obama.
Foreign Policy has been known over the years for its eclectic lists, which rarely repeat people from one year to the next. Several years ago, its list of 100 included Zahra Rahnavard and her husband, former Prime Minister Mir-Hossain Musavi.