Reporting by PMOI/MEK
Iran, August 17, 2021—The Iranian regime’s upcoming foreign minister is poised to make terrorism a key tenet of Iran’s diplomacy. According to the Fars News Agency, the news outlet run by the Iranian regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), Hossein Amir Abdollahian, who is nominated to become Ebrahim Raisi’s top diplomat, told the members of the Majlis (parliament) that he will “continue the path” of Qassem Soleimani in his foreign policy.
Qassem Soleimani was the commander of the Quds Force, the foreign arm of the IRGC. Soleimani was in charge of the regime’s terrorist activities abroad. He directed the regime’s proxy terrorist groups in countries of the region, including Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. Soleimani was designated as a terrorist by the U.S. for his role in conducting attacks on American forces in Iraq and for supporting terrorist groups. Soleimani was killed in a drone strike in January 2020 while he was on a secret trip to Iraq.
Abdollahian made those remarks in a meeting between members of the Majlis culture commission and nominees for the foreign, interior, and health ministries. In the meeting, Amir Abdollahian said that a lot of his experience was during the time that he “cooperated with Soleimani in the foreign policy domain” and he promised to “continue Soleimani’s path.”
It is no secret that Soleimani had great sway on the regime’s foreign policy. Many of the regime’s senior diplomats and embassy staff were members of the Quds Force and reported to Soleimani, including Assadollah Assadi, a Vienna-based diplomat who is currently serving 20 years in prison for a failed attempt to bomb a major rally of the Iranian resistance in France in 2018.
In a recent interview, Mohammad Javad Zarif, the foreign minister of former regime president Hassan Rouhani, acknowledged that the Revolutionary Guards dominate the regime’s policies, especially the foreign strategies that have resulted in various terrorist crimes in the region and across the world. Zarif said that 98 percent of the regime’s diplomacy achievements, especially in the Middle East region, were accomplished by the Quds Force and especially Soleimani.
Abdollahian previously served as the Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs under Zarif and had a very close relationship with Soleimani.
While Amir Abdollahian’s comments come as no surprise, they are a reminder that terrorism and violence is a key pillar of the regime’s diplomacy.
In a cabinet meeting on April 8, Rouhani further proved the unity in the criminal nature of the regime. “I am speaking as someone who has been in the Supreme National Security Council for 32 years,” Rouhani said, adding that “the frontline and diplomacy are two arms” of the mullahs’ regime. He further drove the point by saying, “If anyone believes that either the frontline or the negotiations must win, then I must say that their words are incorrect.”
