Esmail Qaani, head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF), traveled to Iraq on May 14. He met with Iraqi National Security Advisor Qasim al Araji after arriving in Baghdad. The National noted it was a “rare publicly announced visit [that] comes days before Arab Summit in Iraqi capital.” Rudaw media, a Kurdish channel based in Erbil, reported that Qaani is in Iraq to “discuss Baghdad-Tehran relations, the joint border security agreement implementation, and ongoing US-Iran nuclear talks.”
Several key issues are emerging in Iraq during Qaani’s visit. An Arab League summit will take place in Baghdad on May 17. Foreign ministers of Arab states and other officials had already begun to arrive in the country on May 15. Iran and its close allies among Iraq’s Shiite political parties and militias have also drawn attention to the summit.
For instance, in the weeks prior to the event, Shiite leaders opposed Syrian interim President Ahmed al Sharaa attending the meeting. “Threats were conveyed through several private messages sent by top Shiite political figures who opposed Sharaa’s presence in Iraq, citing pending judicial demands from Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council. Pressure was also exerted on Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani not to extend an official invitation to Sharaa,” Kurdistan24 noted on May 11. Sharaa will not attend the summit.
Qaani’s visit to Iraq is very public, unlike his past movements in the region. For example, in the fall of 2024, he was not seen for several weeks before emerging to attend a funeral in Iran in October 2024. He was last in Iraq in March 2024 on the eve of US-Iran talks.
Qaani’s predecessor, Qasem Soleimani, was killed in Iraq by a US drone strike in January 2020 following months of Shiite militia attacks on US forces in the country. Iran-US tensions and how they impact Iraq appear to be on Qaani’s agenda. Shafaq News noted that “Qaani will discuss the Iranian-American negotiations with Baghdad and will also hold meetings with leaders of the [Shiite] Coordination Framework […] to brief them on all the details and information regarding the course of the negotiations between his country and the United States, in addition to other information regarding these agreements and their impact on the security and stability of the region.” The report noted that Tehran seeks “Arab support for lifting” sanctions on Iran and wants this topic on the summit’s agenda. “Qaani’s visit to Baghdad is part of Iran’s efforts to deliver these messages to the United States,” Shafaq’s report added.
The Quds Force commander is also in Iraq to discuss implementing a security agreement between Iraq and Iran. According to The National, Araji said that Qaani and he discussed “joint efforts to secure the borders and the implementation of the security agreement between the two countries.” This statement relates to Iran’s demands that Iraq crack down on Iranian dissident groups in Iraq, primarily Kurdish armed groups. An agreement was signed in 2023.
Iraq has attempted to rein in these groups. “Iraq’s National Security Council has formally banned all political, media, and social activities of Iranian opposition parties and movements operating within its territory, including the Kurdistan Region, Iranian media reported on Friday,” Rudaw reported on May 2. Araji had pushed for this step in late April, and Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al Sudani concurred.
In addition, Sudani said Iraq is seeking to establish the “state’s monopoly on arms and rejecting the presence of any weapons outside its official institutions,” Shafaq News reported on May 15. “We have confronted terrorism for two decades, and today we are working to strengthen our security institutions through a legal, political, and security roadmap aimed at restricting arms possession to the state alone,” he said.
It was not clear if these statements also apply to Shiite militias in Iraq, many of which are part of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). There have been discussions of disarming some of these groups over the past six months, and Iraq’s foreign minister also made a statement about restricting weapons to state control.
Sudani met with Hadi al Amiri and Qais Khazali, the leaders of two powerful Shiite militias, on May 14. Sudani discussed “Iraq’s readiness to host the Arab Summit” and said, “This summit represents an important step towards strengthening Iraq’s relations and coordinating positions on current issues and challenges, particularly in light of Iraq’s growing pivotal role in its Arab and regional environment.” The prime minister did not mention the issue of weapons being outside of state control in the meetings with the militia leaders.
