The most important man in Iraq...is an Iranian?
April 29, 2008
And an Iranian general to boot, according to McClatchey Newspapers:
One of the most powerful men in Iraq isn't an Iraqi government official, a militia leader, a senior cleric or a top U.S. military commander or diplomat.
He's an Iranian general, and at times he's more influential than all of them.
Brig. Gen. Qassem Suleimani commands the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, an elite paramilitary and espionage organization whose mission is to expand Iran's influence in the Middle East.
As Tehran's point man on Iraq, he funnels military and financial support to various Iraqi factions, frustrating U.S. attempts to build a pro-Western democracy on the rubble of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship.
According to Iraqi and American officials, Suleimani has ensured the elections of pro-Iranian politicians, met frequently with senior Iraqi leaders and backed Shiite elements in the Iraqi security forces that are accused of torturing and killing minority Sunni Muslims.
"Whether we like him (Suleimani) or not, whether Americans like him or not, whether Iraqis like him or not, he is the focal point of Iranian policy in Iraq," said a senior Iraqi official who asked not to be identified so he could speak freely. "The Quds Force have played it all, political, military, intelligence, economic. They are Iranian foreign policy in Iraq."
Readers of this blog may remember Suleimani from my post last month:
This brings us back to a recurring problem: the considerable influence of Shiite Iran over the Shiite-dominated al-Maliki government and over Iraqi affairs in general. Many observers were disturbed by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadenijad's visit to Iraq last month and saw it as a slap in the face to the Bush administration. Now, the fact that the Al-Sadr truce was apprently brokered by an Iranian general--and that Iraqi lawmakers had to travel secretly to Iran with hats in hand to get it--shows that the U.S. is facing quite an uphill climb in its battle to cleanse Iraq of Iranian influence. Indeed, under the al-Maliki government, this may be a downright impossible task.
All is not lost, however, in iraq's Shiite areas. In fact, Coalittion forces are making very nice gains there, according tot he intrepid Bill Roggio (who's been documenting these gains regularly ever since the Basra offensive began last month).
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