BAGHDAD — Ask any American intelligence analyst or military officer and they’ll tell you that Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Qods Force, is a terrorist. He’s responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans and worked assiduously to destabilize Iraq in the wake of its liberation to signal to those across the region that American intervention was more a curse than blessing.
Ask many Iranians about Soleimani and they will describe him as a hero. Many of Iran’s leaders talk, but Soleimani does. And while Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei lectures from a chair behind a flower-decked dais, Soleimani drinks tea with Iranian soldiers and the proxies Iran supports in the field.
In short, within Iran and among the Iranian military, Soleimani enjoys a reputation not unlike that of Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis — that is, a real soldier’s soldier.
Increasingly, however, in Iraq and elsewhere, Soleimani has a different image: that of deal-crafter and master diplomat. Whereas American officials once pulled all-nighters in smoke-filled rooms with Iraqi politicians until the Iraqis reached a hard-fought consensus or compromise, because of the personality of ambassadors sent to Baghdad, fears about security, or design, the United States has largely deferred that role to Iran.
Against the backdrop of the Kirkuk crisis, it was Soleimani who brokered a deal between the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Shiite militias, and the Iraqi federal government to avoid bloodshed. For all the talk of Iran’s sectarianism — and make no mistake, Iran is sectarian — even Sunni politicians talk about discussions and negotiations with Soleimani in order to get things done, get their voice heard, and de-escalate crises.
It’s not just in Iraq: In Syria, too, Soleimani has been a presence. He is helping the Bashar Assad regime and Hezbollah consolidate control, in addition to facilitating the import of Iranian weaponry and the dispatch of Iranian forces. At the same time, he is patching together tribal and political coalitions that have helped tip the balance of that conflict back in favor of Assad. And, while American analysts rightly point out that Soleimani’s recent trips to Russia violate U.N. sanctions, at the same time, those trips also underscore Soleimani’s role.
The point of this is threefold.
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Iran has not only a strategy, but the personnel to coordinate and enforce it.
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For all of former Secretary of State John Kerry’s bromance with Javad Zarif, Iran’s formal foreign minister, Zarif is window dressing. Soleimani brokers the real deals. This is one of the reasons why Zarif has been caught in so many lies: Even if he were sincere, he doesn’t have the power to enforce his deals — Soleimani does.
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Washington can complain about Iranian influence in Iraq and elsewhere, but until the State Department and Pentagon are willing to get into the trenches with the Iraqi leaders the way Soleimani does, it will be difficult for Iraq to take America’s commitment seriously. Special envoy Brett McGurk has proven himself an able diplomat, but he is not in the trenches with the consistency of Soleimani, nor do Iraqis believe he carries the same imprimatur from the White House as Soleimani has from the supreme leader. One can’t have influence in the game if one is afraid to step on the field.
It’s time to face facts: For all intents and purposes, Soleimani is Iran’s real foreign minister.
Michael Rubin (@Mrubin1971) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a former Pentagon official.
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