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Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Dossier: Iran's Soleimani, Master Terrorist Leader Of Quds Force Dossier: Iran's Soleimani, Master Terrorist Leader Of Quds ForceNovember 10, 2015 Dossier: Iran's Soleimani, Master Terrorist November 6, 2015 - San Francisco, CA – PipeLineNews.org – Hat tip to Steven Emerson and the folks at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for making available an important new 50 plus page study [prepared by Dr. Raz Zamit, The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center] detailing the activities of Qasem Soleimani who leads Iran's QUDS/QODS Force, considered the elite cutting edge of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC]. "The Qods Force was established in 1990 as an organized, operational framework for the extensive activities Iran conducts to export the Islamic Revolution to other countries." [source, study, p. 1] Soleimani has run the Quds operation since the late 1990's and is the face of the Iranian effort to promote the revolutionary ideology of Shia Islam throughout the ME [targeting its Sunni majority] and indeed the world. Soleimani was instrumental in coordinating the Iranian funded and trained Shia militias during the United States' Operation Iraqi Freedom campaign and is now responsible for leading the Ayatollocracy's efforts in support of Syria's embattled president Bashar al-Assad as various stripes of Sunni jihadists try to destabilize this key Iranian buffer state. Though quite successful, from the standpoint of creating thousands of additional casualties among U.S. troops [many of which were killed or seriously wounded by Iranian IEDs] serving in Iraq, his Syrian operation has run into difficulties, especially in its ground campaign:
And:
To a very large degree it is Soleimani who is responsible for bringing Russia into the Syrian conflict via his direct negotiation with Vlad Putin
At the time Soleimani was barred by international law from travelling outside of Iran, having been declared a terrorist in an October of 2011 U.S. Treasury Dept. finding because of his involvement in an Iranian plot [he ran the operation] to assassinate the Saudi ambassador while he was on official business in DC.
Of note, this designation was well in advance the Obama administration's [P5+1] Iranian nuke deal and should have provided more than ample reason to reject the agreement out of hand because of Iran's brazen defiance of the already extant rules governing its behavior. Soleimani is not on good terms with Iraq's current president Abadi and thus is seen as a major irritant in efforts for Iraq and Iran to maintain something of a united front against ISIS.
Though seen as a more than effective fighter, a "man of deeds," rather than words, Soleimani holds such sway within Iran's complex governing structure that he's also developed a strong backlash, with some feeling that he is advancing himself politically having established a cult of personality as the vehicle. Dr. Zamit's study concludes with the observation that regardless of the path Soleimani chooses, military, political or some mixture of both:
The P5+1 group is mired in confusion with little prospect – absent strong future American leadership - of ever being able to effectively deal with Iranian ambitions. Obama and his European cohorts' failure to check the terrorist state's aggressive and expansionist foreign policy means that Qasem Soleimani will remain a valuable asset as long as he continues to find favor with the Ayatollahs who run the country. ©2015 PipeLineNews.org LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. http://www.pipelinenews.org/2015/nov/05/dossier-iran-rsquos-soleimani-master-terrorist.html |