Soleimani’s death leaves US power in Middle East weakened, his former comrades warn

General Moghadam, who fought alongside Soleimani, tells Kim Sengupta that many groups across the region wanted revenge after the commander’s death

Women walk past a banner of Qassem Soleimani (AP)

General Hossein Kanani Moghadam received the news of Qassem Soleimani’s death in the early hours of the morning. He had warned Soleimani, his successor as chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, that he might become the target of an attack, and his foreboding had come true.

In the final days before Iran votes in a parliamentary election, one of the most important in its recent history and one that will have great resonance for the region and beyond, General Moghadam is reflecting on the turbulent times ahead and the long shadow of war.

“I sent Commander Soleimani a message two months ago asking him to be careful. I knew some people were suddenly very interested in his travel plans, his movements – to me it seemed worrying and I let him know,’’ the former head of the Revolutionary Guards tells The Independent.

“But it was still a great shock when it happened, a great shock. I got a call at about three in the morning from a mutual friend, and then there were lots of calls of condolences from people in Iran and many different countries.”

General Soleimani was killed alongside Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis – the leader of Kata’ib Hezbollah, part of the Iraqi militia Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), a long-time ally of Iran. Another of the casualties was a comrade of long standing whom General Moghadam had known well.

“We have all had connections over years, fought in many wars together, and now Commander Soleimani has gone, Abu Mahdi as well. We have more martyrs, but that is the price one sometimes pays for the struggle. But, of course, a few deaths can lead to many more: that is a lesson we have learned.”

General Moghadam, sitting in his study in the basement of his home in a Tehran suburb, describes how calls of condolence had been accompanied by calls for revenge.

“I was contacted by groups in many countries – in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, north Africa, other parts of Asia – all saying they wanted to avenge the death of the martyr Soleimani”, he says.

“But I advised them not to do anything, to wait to see what happens, what the political consequences will be. Also, on a military level, the US forces were at a high level of alert; you do not fight the enemy when he is fully prepared and expecting an attack.

“Anyway, the Iranian government had already retaliated at Ain al-Asad. Maybe the Americans thought Iran would not do anything, but this operation was carried out. There may be something else in the future, who knows? But the real danger is that with this confrontation in the region, the building up of forces, something can go wrong.

“But certainly I would not want any groups in other countries using terrorism, targeting civilians. What is the point of fighting Daesh [Isis] all these years if groups use the same methods?”

Missiles were fired by Iranian forces at the Ain al-Asad airbase, which Donald Trump had visited in 2018, about 100 miles northwest of Baghdad. There was also an attack on a second base, near Irbil, in the Kurdish-controlled part of the country.

The Revolutionary Guards said the strikes came at the same time of day that General Soleimani had been killed. Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, claimed that support warplanes had been sent from the bases in the targeting of the general. Tehran said the attacks were also a warning to neighbouring countries that provided the US with facilities for action against Iran.

The assassination of the Revolutionary Guards commander, General Moghadam maintains, will hasten the withdrawal of American power from the Middle East.

“Look at so many countries which said they had nothing to do with the killing: America’s allies, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, others. That is the message they wanted to send to us. I think that without outside interference we can come to an understanding with Gulf countries on Yemen, on Syria. I think we can work together for proper peace,” he emphasises.

Most of General Moghadam’s adult life, however, has been spent in wars. An activist under the Shah’s rule, he was imprisoned by the secret police for two years before being freed after the return of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the revolution in 1979.

The young Moghadam immediately joined the military and fought in the eight-years-long war against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, rising through the ranks to become a senior officer and then the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.

One of his brothers and three of his brothers-in-law did not survive the conflict. Their photographs hang on the walls of his study, along with many of the general during times of combat in Afghanistan against the Russians, and in Iraq against Saddam. There is also, on a stand, an old black telephone: the ‘hotline’ to Ayatollah Khomeini from the front line.

After retiring from the military, General Moghadam founded the Green Party, which he describes as centrist, but which is generally regarded as right-wing. Two of its members have seats in parliament.

General Moghadam backed Ebrahim Raisi, the conservative candidate, against Hassan Rouhani, the incumbent reformist, in the last presidential election. Rouhani won, but the general holds that his reformist parliamentary colleagues will suffer in this week’s election.

The agreement between the west and Iran on the country’s nuclear programme has been severely undermined by President Trump’s decision to withdraw from it and then impose punitive sanctions on Iran.

“The people did not get the benefits they were promised from the agreement, the economy is doing very badly and people are unhappy” says the general. “Martyr Soleimani’s death will have lots of repercussions. Politically, I think many of them who attended his funeral will vote for the principalists [conservatives] and the reformists will not do well.”

Not all the old comrades of General Soleimani agree with this assessment. Kamal Sepahi, a conservative columnist who served alongside him in the Iraq war and was seriously injured in action, believes that the commander was careful to remain relatively neutral in domestic politics, and this may be reflected in the polls.

“We were in the same trenches in that war. But he was a senior officer and I was a soldier. We all respect him as someone who sacrificed his youth for his country and served the people for 40 years,” he says.

“The funeral was attended by so many people, lots of people with different views. They wanted to show their appreciation, their love. People will vote in different ways and some will not vote at all. I don’t think the commander’s death will decide the vote, but it will assuredly have an impact in many other different ways.”