{"id":15004,"date":"2026-04-19T07:29:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T07:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/?p=15004"},"modified":"2026-04-19T07:29:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T07:29:20","slug":"irans-quds-force-chief-qaani-visits-iraq-senior-official","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/?p=15004","title":{"rendered":"Iran’s Quds Force chief Qaani visits Iraq: senior official"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Iranian commander Esmail Qaani arrived in Baghdad on Saturday to meet political leaders and representatives of armed factions and to discuss the Middle East war and its impact on Iraq, a senior Iraqi official told AFP.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political deadlock over the nomination of Iraq\u2019s next prime minister would also be on the agenda, the official said of Qaani\u2019s first reported trip abroad since a US-Iran ceasefire began on April 8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Qaani, whose visits to Iraq are rarely announced, heads the Quds Force, the foreign operations branch of Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iraq has long walked a tightrope between the competing influences of its allies \u2014 neighbouring Iran and the United States \u2014 with Iraqi leaders struggling to maintain a delicate balance between the two foes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iraq was drawn into the Middle East war with strikes targeting Iran-backed groups, which in turn have claimed attacks on US interests, mostly in Iraq but also across the wider region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: Iran War 2026- Live Updates: Yemen\u2019s Houthis threaten to close Bab al-Mandeb Strait<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Iraqi official said Qaani was holding \u201cmeetings with Iraqi political leaders and a number of commanders of armed factions\u201d, adding that the goal of the visit was to \u201caddress regional de-escalation and its impact on Iraq\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Qaani \u201cseeks to coordinate positions among Tehran\u2019s allies in Iraq and to ensure that the security situation does not deteriorate during these sensitive times\u201d in Iraq and the region, the official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A source from a powerful Tehran-backed faction and another two close to the Coordination Framework \u2014 a ruling alliance of Shia groups with varying ties to Iran \u2014 confirmed the visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of the sources spoke on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The visit is also part of Iranian \u201cefforts to support the path of understanding between Iraqi parties and bridge their differences, especially amid ongoing disagreements over the government\u201d, the Iraqi senior official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iraqi leaders have been stuck in a political deadlock since January, after US President Donald Trump threatened to cut support for Iraq when the Coordination Framework backed Nouri al-Maliki to become the country\u2019s next prime minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump said he would end all support for Iraq if Maliki, a two-time former prime minister with close ties to Iran, returned to power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several political sources told AFP that the Coordination Framework will likely choose a new candidate soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iranian commander Esmail Qaani arrived in Baghdad on Saturday to meet political leaders and representatives of armed factions and to discuss the Middle East war and its impact on Iraq, a senior Iraqi official told AFP. Political deadlock over the nomination of Iraq\u2019s next prime minister would also be on the agenda, the official said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"no","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_3859443944190656_828796993651875":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[{"account":"facebook_3859443944190656_828796993651875","service":"facebook","timestamp":1776583800,"status":"error"}],"rop_publish_now_status":"done","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15004"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15006,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15004\/revisions\/15006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}