How Qassem Soleimani Helped Shape the Modern Mideast

(Bloomberg) -- Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds force, was the personification of Iran’s projection of power abroad. His death in a U.S. strike near Baghdad International Airport will reverberate across the Middle East, where he helped make Iran a decisive regional player via a network of proxy militias. Soleimani also wielded influence at home through his close ties to the country’s Supreme Leader, forged during a military career that spanned the bloody eight-year war with Iraq to paramilitary operations in countries including Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. His assasination heightens fears of escalation between the U.S. and Iran, which could easily pull in other countries.

1. How was Soleimani killed?

An airstrike ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump killed Soleimani near Baghdad’s airport early on Jan. 3 local time. Trump authorized the strike days after dozens of Iranian-backed militiamen and their supporters stormed the U.S. embassy complex in Baghdad to protest U.S. airstrikes against Kataeb Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militia that nominally falls under the command of the Iraqi armed forces.

2. What was Soleimani’s background?

Soleimani joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps after the Iranian revolution in 1979. Born to an impoverished family, he rose to prominence while commanding troops during the Iran-Iraq War from 1980-1988, which began when the forces of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invaded. It ended with as many as a million people dead. Supreme Leader Ayatolah Ali Khamenei promoted him to major general in 2011, after he took over the Quds Force. Over the course of his career, he developed close ties with Kurdish groups in Iraq and later assisted Hezbollah in Lebanon.

3. How powerful was he?

For all practical purposes, Soleimani ran Iran’s foreign policy in the Middle East. When Syria’s Bashar al-Assad visited Tehran last year, Iran’s foreign minister wasn’t invited to sit in on the meeting with the Supreme Leader, but Soleimani was. He directed many of Iran’s military operations to combat Islamic State, while helping to prop up allied governments in Iraq and Syria. His influence in Iraq was so great that when anti-government protests erupted, Soleimani was dispatched to Baghdad to participate in negotiations over the departure of the Iraqi prime minister. He also took a direct role in running Iranian policy to support Assad’s regime, which was threatened by mainly Sunni Muslim insurgents. Iran, like Iraq, is a majority Shiite-Muslim country.

4. How did Iranians view him?

Soleimani’s popularity surged as his military exploits made him the face of Iran’s fight against the Sunni jihadists of Islamic State. He regularly visited front lines in Iraq and Syria. By 2016, his popularity was such that there was speculation that he might run for president. He denied the rumors, saying he hoped to remain a soldier until the end of his life. A poll that year showed that 76% of Iranians held a favorable view of Soleimani, with more than half reporting a “very favorable” opinion.

5. When did the U.S. start to target him?

The U.S. sanctioned Soleimani and declared the Quds Force a terrorist organization in 2007. Four years later the U.S. sanctioned him again due to his alleged involvement in providing material support to the Syrian government. In April 2019, the Trump administration declared the entire Revolutionary Guard a foreign terrorist organization. Iran responded by declaring that all U.S. forces in the Middle East are terrorists.

6. Where do U.S.-Iranian relations go now?

Tensions have been building for months, and intensified after attacks on Saudi Arabian oil facilities, tankers in the Persian Gulf and U.S. forces deployed in Iraq -- all of which the U.S. has blamed on Iran. Khamenei has vowed that “severe retaliation” awaits those who killed Soleimani.

The Reference Shelf

• A New Yorker profile of the “shadow commander,” and another from the British Broadcasting Corp.
• A report on Soleimani by the American Enterprise Institute.
• Soleimani dismissed media speculation about a presidential run.

To contact the reporter on this story: Glen Carey in Washington at gcarey8@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net, ;Riad Hamade at rhamade@bloomberg.net, Benjamin Harvey, Paul Geitner

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.