Today, as never before was such a need for intellectual clarity and extensive information about the main actors - political, military, other - in the Middle East. Despite the abhorrent character and crimes perpetrated by some, it is important to know to whom belong those names that suddenly make it on the Breaking News.
The Shadow Commander. Soleimani, the US and Iran´s Global Ambitions by Arash Azizi is a noteworthy and the first substantial research in English on the biography of the general Qasem Soleimani, killed in an American drone attack at the beginning of this year near Baghdad International Airport.
A ´boy from the margins of the society´, a provincial karateka, his seamless raise on the top of the revolutionary Iran hierarchies and complicated intrigues occured during the Iran-Iraq war and further on, by leading various local operations in his native Kerman. Since January 1988 he was appointed on the top of the Quds - from Arabic al-Quds, ´the Holy one´ referring to the city of Jerusalem - Force that he will lead until his death, turning it ´into the most ambitious expeditionary army in the history of the modern Middle East´.
The soldier-diplomat Soleimani become feared and appreciated - depends on which side of the Sunni-Shia divide one´s stand - for his bloody attacks he perpetrated and the direct, sometimes spontaneous, involvement in various local battles. His death was celebrated openly in Iraq and Syria where his survival victims were still having fresh memories of his attacks. In Iran, a majestic set-up was ordered and display, soon after massive protests all over the country ended in a brutal crackdown. Soon after, the authorities hit accidentally - but refused to acknowledged for a long time - an Ukrainian airplane killing the 176 passengers on board, mostly young people searching for a stable and brighter life in Canada. Indeed, while busy to play bloody cards in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, what a big achievement of the Islamic Revolution and its proxies to be the cause of the massive brain drain in the country´s history!
The current minister of Foreign Affairs, Javad Zarif, is portrayed - frequently and uncritically - as a fine diplomat, aimed to charm and sometimes charmed too, by a Western audience. He may have been more than once in conflict with Soleimani but the fact that he played on his music and acquiesced to the placing of Quds ´diplomats´ that perpetrated or planned acts of terror using the diplomatic network doesn´t diminish his responsibility within the regime.
Although the book deals with complex Middle Eastern policies, it is written in a very captivating style, with political facts evolving sometimes with a cinematic alacrity. The journalistic, non-pretentious yet informative style helps a lot to avoid information overload. After all, Soleimani was not any kind of academic, but a person of action and this approach suits both the reader and the subject.
Even for someone with basic to middle level of knowledge about local politics and Iranian ambitions, it was interesting to observe how Tehran in the post-Islamic Revolution realm ambitioned in turning into a Moscow of the Middle East. The desperate internationalism with a pregnant Shia Islam outreach ended up by creating deep divisions within the fellow Muslim countries. It also recalibrated dramatically the regional alliances until this very day: Once upon a time, countries like Turkey, Iran and Ethiopia were part of a larger policy of alliances endeavoured by Israel to counter the vocal - but often just for the sake of the cameras - Arab bloc. Nowadays, it´s the other way round, as both Iran and Turkey are lead by personalised regimes endangering the fragile post-Cold War geopolitical balances.
The damage in the region made by violent outtakes authored by Soleimani is hard to evaluate as for now. In the case of the beloved ´Palestinian case´, Soleimani´s interposers played and still playing more or less consciously a game that does not serve a long term solution to the conflict. Actually, it fuelled it by supporting radicalised actors whose only raison d´etre is a permanent state of conflict, otherwise they may be out of work. ´The Quds Force might still claim that it was a ´´voice of the oppressed´´ but in practice it had become an instruments of Iran´s state-based foreign policy of extending Iranian influence in the Aran world and doing so through sectarian Shia proxies´. Although I´ve found a bit forced more than once the comparisons between the left internationalist movements of the Cold War and the Shia-oriented one, when it comes to the Middle East, both Moscow and Tehran may be proud of playing their own dirty games in full disrespect of the free will of the everyday Palestinians.
Books like The Shadow Commander, on other main regional and Iranian players - no matter their despicability - aimed at an international audience are a very useful source of information for a different, realistic approach of a region that for the time being has the highest potential of ongoing frequent mentions on the Breaking News reports.
Rating: 4.5 stars
Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review
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