Mar 19, 2015

Qasem Soleimani is now known to many who follow Middle Eastern affairs. The commander of Iran’s Quds Force, the division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) responsible for Iran’s files outside of its borders, has been everywhere in both Western and regional media the last couple of years. Pictures of Soleimani inside Iraq alongside Iraqi forces and Shiite militias have become ubiquitous since June 2014 when the Sunni extremist group Islamic State (IS) took over parts of Iraq.

On the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA), Zahra Asghari took a closer look at the man who competed head to head in polls for Iran’s Person of the Year with the popular nuclear negotiator Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Asghari wrote that when pictures of Soleimani in Iraq first appeared on social media, ISNA chose not to republish the pictures assuming that the images were accidentally leaked online. But as more images of Soleimani appeared in Iraq, on the front line among Iraqi forces and leaders, it became clear the pictures were being released intentionally.

Asghari wrote that while a number of IRGC commanders are advising the Iraqi forces and the Popular Mobilization Units fighting IS, it is clear that Soleimani’s role goes beyond that. Asghari continued that the pictures of Soleimani across various provinces in Iraq have raised questions domestically, regionally and internationally. And since there seems to be no desire by Iranian officials to answer these questions, it has only fueled more rumors and speculation.

Despite Soleimani being the head of the Quds Force, before June 2014, there were few pictures, videos or speeches available of him to the point that Asghari wrote that before this point “interviewing him or writing a report about him was not possible for Iranian media.” Interestingly, even in this long profile of Soleimani, none of the sources Asghari interviewed were willing to speak on the record. The sources of course all had high praise for Soleimani, telling Asghari that they believe that the only other figure who has the same attributes and success record as Soleimani is Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.