September 12-14
A photo has appeared showing Qassem Soleimani with troops inside Iraq, suggesting he is still very much the commander of Iran’s Qods Force.
Rumors that Soleimani, 57, has been fired have been circulating for a month in Tehran. Some say that his failure to get Nuri Al-Maliki re-appointed as prime minister of Iraq got him shelved.
But what seems more likely is that he has lost the political role he once had inside Iraq because he was too closely identified with Maliki. Once Maliki was booted out, Soleimani was tainted goods when it came to dealing with the new prime minister and the rest of the Shiite political establishment that had ejected Maliki.
For the last month, Tehran’s political statements about Iraq have come from Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and a fluent speaker of Arabic.
Last week, Hojatoleslam Mojtaba Taheri, a member of the Assembly of Experts, was quoted as saying that Soleimani had been scheduled to address the Assembly but was unable to appear and had been replaced by Shamkhani.
No one in authority in Tehran has publicly described the roles of Soleimani and Sham-khani yet. But what appears most likely is that Soleimani remains commander of the Qods Force and leads the Iranian military effort in Iraq and Syria, while Shamkhani has taken over the political role of dealing with the Iraqi political establishment.
Still, it would be helpful if the Islamic Republic would announce who is doing what.
The photo of Soleimani was reportedly taken near the Iraqi town of Amerli after troops of the Islamic State who had surrounded it were driven off by the combined forces of Iraqi Shiite militias organized by Soleimani, Iraqi Army regular units and air power provided by the US.
The photos of Soleimani were posted on a webpage associated with the Lebanese Hezbollah.
