(Qassem Soleimani ….the architect of the Iranian project in the levant ( Arab Mashreq

In recent years, Qassem Soleimani is a familiar name in the media for a man who assume leadership tasks within the controversial military formation. As in the case with many characters embraced by a halo of security in the Middle East ,noting that many of the stories being made on Qassem Soleimani to touch the limits of mythology by his supporters, and “devilry by his opponents. This picture has been solidified, especially after his recent appearance on the outskirts of the Iraqi city of Fallujah. In this context, we wonder who is Qassem Soleimani, and what is his role in Iran’s foreign policy towards the Arab Mashreq countries?
Qassem Soleimani was born in 1957 in the town of Rabor of Iran’s Kerman province, his father was peasant who has been threatened with imprisonment of the Shah’s regime; forcing him to work on his thirteen years old, to try to pay off the debt from his father, on the eve of the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, Soleimani joined the Iranian Revolutionary Guard . He took part in the Iran-Iraq war, he was at that time the commander of the Corps (41 Thar Allah) , and he was in his twenties, and then was promoted to become one of the ten Iranian leaders who are important in the Iranian military divisions deployed on the border. Then he was sent to the Afghan border to combat drug smuggling.
He was appointed at the beginning of the nineties of the elapsed century as the commander of the Revolutionary Guards in his province of Kerman on the border with Afghanistan, and his military experience helped him a lot in reducing drug trafficking from Afghanistan to Europe via Turkey and Iran, as was in vogue. In 1998, he was appointed as the commander’s “Qods Force,” an elite unit in charge of covert operations abroad and subsidiaries for the Iranian “Revolutionary Guards” , replacing Ahmad Vahidi .Due to devote himself to the service of the Republic of Iran, he was described by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in 2005 as a “living martyr”. And the United States accused Soleimani in 2008 to train Shiite militias to fight the international coalition forces in Iraq. In 2011 the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei promoted Soleimani from Major General to General in the Revolutionary Guards.
As for his rapid rise,it goes back to 1999 when the student revolution was erupted in the era of the former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami , Qassem Soleimani was one of 24 the commanders of the Revolutionary Guards who signed a letter to the President, that if the government did not address the move of students, the Revolutionary Guards will do so, and will carry out a coup d’etat against Khatami himself. He was one of the candidates strongly to succeed Yahya Rahim Safavi, in the leadership of the Revolutionary Guards when giving up the position in 2007. In 2008, he led an Iranian team to investigate the killing of Imad Mughniyeh, the military commander of the Lebanese Hezbollah, and mediate in the same year for a cease-fire between the Iraqi army and the Mehdi Army militia of the Sadrist movement in Iraq.
US intelligence sources believe that Qassem Soleimani has trained Arab fighters in Bosnia in order to send them across the Iranian-Afghan border in 1996 and 1997, amid rising tension between Iran and the Taliban during its rule of Afghanistan . He was assumed also according to the order of the Leader Ali Khamenei the responsibility of Iranian foreign policy in several countries including: Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan, in which a lot of cadres of the embassies of Iran are chosen among the Iranian Revolutionary Guards officers .The sense that he runs the project of the Iranian expansion in the whole world, not in the Arab region alone, and some considered him the de facto leader of the military wing of the Lebanese Hezbollah.
As for his striking presence in Iraq, Syria, it can be said that the control of state regulation in Iraq and the Levant “Daash” on the city of Mosul in June 2014, is the beginning to talk about a public presence and explicit role of Qassem Soleimani and the Qods Force in Iraq battles, most notably the Battle of Amerli City in Salahuddin province in August 2014, in which Soleimani forces and Shiite militias and Kurdish forces were able to break the siege of state regulation on the city. a video was shown of the major general Soleimani was danceing with some of the soldiers in Iraq, after the liberation of the Iraqi village of Amerli from the siege of state regulation in Iraq and the Levant “Daash” which lasted 70 days. According to statements by Hadi al-Amiri, the former Iraqi Minister of Transportation and the official responsible for Badr forces, paying tribute to the Soleimani role in addressing the state regulation and prevent it from invading Kurdistan region of Iraq, but if Soleimani weren’t ” in the battle, the government of Haider al-Abadi would be in exile, and there was no existence for Iraq.”
According to experts in Iraqi affairs, the Qassem Soleimani is taking hold of affairs in Iraq completely, and he is also the founder of the Iranian policy in Iraq “from A to Z” , Soleimani sent a message to Gen. David Petraeus when he was commander of US forces in Iraq on his personal mobile in which he says: Dear General Petraeus, you must know that I am, Qassem Soleimani, controlling the course of policy for Iran with respect to Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza and Afghanistan. “ not only that , but the air force commander in the Revolutionary Guards Brigadier General Ali Haji Zadeh said that the commander Soleimani was able with 70 people only that halts the progress of the organization Daash to the Kurdish capital Arbil . In addition to his military presence in Iraq , and several organizations inside Iraq receive funding from Iran and are dealing with Suleimani directly, and subject to his leadership.
When the Syrian regime’s inability was started to appear in the confrontation with the armed opposition , in the second half of 2012, Qassem Soleimani interfered himself in the management of the intervention of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia and Iraqi forces in the battle with Syria , from a base in Damascus. The battle of Al-Qaseer was one of the most important battles led by Soleimani and was able to be retaken from the opposition in the May 2013. According to several analyzes, Iran is leading the battle in Syria; financially Iran supported Assad with more than seven billion dollars, and militarily, the actual commander of military operations in Syria is Gen. Soleimani, but he leads the operations in Syria on the ground in person. He runs the military operations from a fortified building in Damascus, and he established a series of multinational leaders who run the war, including the Syrian army leaders, and the leaders of Hezbollah, a representative of the Shiite militias in Iraq.
During one of his rare appearances, Soleimani revealed with his gray ridges beard in January (January) 2012 on the extent of his influence. He said in a speech conveyed by Iranian media that “Iran is located in the south of Lebanon and Iraq. In fact, these two regions are influenced by somewhat with the doctrine and works of the Islamic Republic “, before Tehran was admitted of sending military advisers to help the Syrian regime in the face of armed opposition fighters . And in the last February , Soleimani said that” no country or force with the exception of Iran is capable of the leadership of the Islamic world today, due to Iran’s support for revolutionary movements and Islamic fighters, as well as the defense of Muslims who are moderates. ” A diplomatic source told “AFP” that Soleimani “knows Syria’s like he was born in it , and he is well aware of Iraq as well.” “he also is very respected by members of the Qods Force with the merit of his career and his character.”
The Qassem Soleimani story with Lebanon, it starts with the beginning of the founding of Hezbollah in the eighties of the elapsed century , it is not about funding only, but the elements of Hezbollah are trained by Qods Force. During the war in July 2006 v Soleimani visited Lebanon, and was acquainted on the developments of the battle, b the American newspaper “The New Yorker” was quoted about an Iraqi official two years ago, saying that Soleimani sent a message to American leaders in Iraq after the end of the war, and in a period in which the violence has ebbed in Baghdad, which he said “I wish you had enjoyed with peace and quiet in Baghdad. I’ve been busy in Beirut. ” The message means that he was busy in the Lebanon war, and that he was returning to disturb the Americans in Iraq.
In 2015 , the commander of the Qods Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani was chosen as the personality of the year in Iran, according to an opinion poll, and his name was emerged in the recent period as a symbol of Iranian interference in Iraq and Syria .and according to the news online site that conducted the poll to mark the festival of Nowruz – the Persian new year , Soleimani got 37.3% of the votes of the participants. And the Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was the second in the poll, who received 29.9% of the votes of the participants, after he was ranked first last year.
This is Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was considered by analysts and the media as the most important security figure in the Middle East, and according to the journalist Dexter Filkins , “when Soleimani appears in public, he does not appear only in the Veterans celebrations, or to interview with the guide of the Iranian revolution (Murshed) .” he is a quiet person. Rarely to speak aloud , he is the man who “when he enters a room with a number of people, he goes to sit alone in the corner of the room, he does not speak, does not comment, just sits and listens.” he is for Western media a mysterious man always silent. For the Iranian regime, he is the architect of its expansion project in the Levant.

Rawabet Research and Strategic Studies Center