Ex-Foreign Minister Reveals Soleimani’s Influence In Iran's Foreign Policy

A US drone strike on January 3, 2020 killed General Qasem Soleimani, who was the head of Iran’s elite Qods (Quds) Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Iran-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization Forces.

Supporters of Shiite factions aligned to Iran were bused in from across Iraq so that they could take part in the rally.

“We will not let you stay after today in the land of the martyrs,” some of the placards read. American and Israeli flags were strewn on the ground, with people trampling on them.

The killing of Soleimani and al-Muhandis pushed Iran and the United States perilously close to all-out conflict and sparked outrage among Iran’s supporters in Iraq, leading parliament to call for the expulsion of all foreign troops from Iraq.

The US-led coalition formally ended its combat mission to support Iraqi forces in their fight against the Islamic State group at the end of December.

Some 2,500 troops will remain for the foreseeable future, however, to continue supporting Iraqi forces in an advisory role.

Some militia leaders have insisted on the departure of all US troops.

Report by AP

According to reports, the fire broke out Friday night in one of the transmission pipelines of phase 16 of the gas field, shutting down the platform.

Pars Oil and Gas Company said in a statement on Saturday that the production unit went out of operation although there was no fire on the platform itself and the accident had no human casualties.

It added that planning for repair work began as soon as the fire in the nearby pipeline was contained. Repairing such a pipeline may take several weeks.

The statement said lightning was the cause of the fire, noting that it ignited gas, which was leaking from the underwater pipeline. "The gas emitted to the water level was ignited by lightning 15 kilometers from the platform," the operating company stated.

An expert speaking to Iran International commented that the leak must have been a significant one to have caused a fire and the pipeline should be considered out of actions for a long time. Apparently, Iran used domestically produced pipes for laying the line in 2015, which would not meet industry standards, he said.

A source has told the semiofficial Mehr news agency that the 100-kilometer pipeline had many technical problems, and 70 kilometers of it had been replaced, but the remaining 30-kilometer segment was under repair. He added that the accident happened after 15 million cubic meters of methane-rich gas was injected into the pipeline.

After a video footage began circulating on social media, the state broadcaster moved to react and said the damage was not large.

The frequency of accidents in Iran’s energy facilities is increasing with some blaming lack of proper maintenance of the aging infrastructures and some suspecting sabotage by other countries, presumably Israel.

Production at the South Pars gas field has been dropping gradually in recent years as Iran is unable to make the necessary investments and improve its technology due to various sanctions. Last year, the field produced 70 percent of Iran’s daily 690 million cubic meters of natural gas output.

Meanwhile, with the world’s second largest gas reserves, Iran is unable to keep up with growing domestic demands, leading to frequent power cuts, although dirty fuels are substituted at power stations.

The incident must have reduced at least 15 million cubic meters of daily production, which can put further pressure on domestic gas supplies amid cold winter months.

Last winter, Iran experienced large power cuts in major cities. Protests broke out on a few occasions. When authorities started burning mazut, a dirty unrefined fuel to generate electricity, it led to heavy pollution in cities adding to the popular anger.

With Iranians traditionally suspicious of both Russia and Great Britain, which held influence in the country from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century, frequent tweets from

Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s lead negotiator in Vienna, have offered fuel for controversy.

Ulyanov, who has also spoken to journalists starved of news about the talks, said this week that Russia and China had persuaded Iran to moderate some of its demands, including an insistence that talks focus on sanctions rather than the nuclear issue.

Ulyanov also said Iran had agreed to negotiate on a draft under discussion when talks were suspended in June at the tail end of the government of President Hassan Rouhani. Officials in the new administration of President Ebrahim Raisi (Raeesi) have instead emphasized written proposals submitted by Iran at the beginning of December.

In comments to the media on December 30, Ulyanov suggested that the first half of February was a realistic target for achieving agreement on how to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

This remark was seized on by a commentary by the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA) Saturday as consistent with warnings from both the United States and the three European JCPOA signatories – France, Germany and the United Kingdom – that it would soon be too late to revive the 2015 agreement. "These remarks were made by the Russian envoy despite the Iranian side's insistence that there would be no deadline,” INLA noted.

Moscow’s consistent position sincethe US left the JCPOA in 2018 and Iran began in 2019 to expand its nuclear program beyond JCPOA limits is that both should respect their commitments under the agreement.

Photos tweeted by Ulyanov of his meetings with Rob Malley, the United States official leading the US delegation in Vienna, and his December 29 reference to“close consultations and coordination”with Malleyhave spurred more controversy. Many on social media took the photo as a sign that Russia is negotiating on Iran’s behalf face to face with the United States, while Tehran refuses to have direct talks with Washington. “Isn’t this a sign of how weak the regime is?”, a post said.

Farmer in remote village

In its commentary, ILNA noted that talks between Malley and Ulyanov had “worried” Iranians who had “become sensitive in recent days about Russian moves … that Moscow is playing the Iran card against Washington.” Such Iranians, INLA continued, saw these meeting as “their country's dignity being peddled at the negotiation table.”

In an editorial Saturday headlined "Honesty, Pillar of Good Governance,” Masih Mohajeri, editor of the conservative Jomhouri Eslami (Islamic Republic) newspaper, wrote that Iranians “should not hear the news, decisions, and plans of their country from foreigners.” While Jomhouri Eslami has a small circulation, many Iranian news websites on Saturday reprinted the editorial in full.

Mohajeri recounted a conversation with a "farmer in a remote village" who had asked him why Iran’s leaders were not admitting that they had decided to agree to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement soon. "His expectation from the authorities is to be honest with the people," Mohajeri wrote.

Another commentary in Jomhouri Eslami Saturday, written by Hossein Alaei, former commander of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) navy, offered advice over the 20-year Iran-Russia pact due to be signed during Raisi's upcoming visit to Moscow."We should be vigilant so that new pacts increase the two countries' trade and be mutually beneficial rather than solving Russia's long-term problems," Alaei wrote.

Head of the crisis management taskforce of Hormozgan province said on Saturday that an eight-year-old girl was drowned by floodwater in Bandar Abbas. He added that about 30 villages lost power and a lot of roads are blocked, making rescue operations even harder and slower. Floods have also caused damage to agricultural lands, houses and infrastructure.

In the eastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, the flood has caused enormous material damage, leading to the closure of schools, shops and offices. The province was already suffering from lack of clean water amid a drought.

The director of the Bushehr meteorological office said on Saturday that heavy rain has caused seasonal rivers to overflow their banks which led to flooding of thoroughfares in several cities. He also spoke about serious damage to the farmlands and orchards.

Mehdi Valipour, the head of Iran’s Red Crescent Society, said on Friday that rescue operations were underway in about a dozen flood-stricken provinces.

Iran’s Meteorological Organization has predicted more rains, blizzards, thunderstorms, and hails for almost all the country in the next five days.

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei insisted that the IRGC general will remain in history as a martyr whereas his killers will be forgotten.

During a meeting with Soleimani’s family and close collaborators on the second anniversary of his death Khamenei described him as a martyr and symbol of “resistance” in the region, stressing, “Martyr Soleimani is more dangerous to his enemies than Commander Soleimani”.

“Resistance” or “Resistance front” is a term used by the Islamic Republic to refer to its anti-Western allies and proxies throughout the region, from Hezbollah in Lebanon to Houthis in Yemen, the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and Iraqi Shiite militias.

Khamenei said, “Trump and others like him will be forgotten and lost in the dustbin of history, of course after paying for their crimes in the world.”

As the country is getting ready to hold ceremonies for the second anniversary of Soleimani’s killing threats and rhetoric by Iranian officials have increased. Iran is planning a long list of events lasting ten days to mark Soleimani’s “martyrdom”. He was killed by a US drone strike on January 3, 2020, as he arrived in Baghdad.

He was Iran’s top military and intelligence operator in the Middle East, organizing proxy forces.

Soleimani played a major role in the Syrian civil war as the coordinator of Iran’s military involvement, including sending tens of thousands of regular and irregular forces to fight in support of Assad.

Iranian officials have often threatened retribution against American and Israeli officials that they have listed as having been involved in ordering, planning and carrying out the drome strike that killed Soleimani. Shortly after his death, Khamenei in January 2020 had said that those responsible for ordering and carrying out the killing had to pay for their actions.

Soleimani’s successor as commander of the extra-territorial Qods (Quds) force, Esmail Ghaani (Qaani) and other officials have also called for retribution against Trump and others.

Iran’s hardline leader said that two years after Soleimani’s death Iran’s proxies are now in a stronger position and more infused with hope.