The Shadow Commander

When he was assassinated by a US drone strike, Qassem Soleimani was one of the most powerful men in Iran. Commander of the Quds Force, the external operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, he was feted by thousands and feared by many. This was a long way from where he began, living on the margins in a country ruled by a monarch supported by the United States. When Soleimani joined the IRGC shortly after the Islamic revolution of 1979, few predicted that the new Islamic Republic of Iran would last, much less become the regional power it is today. In tracing Soleimani's rise to power - through the brutal wars with Iraq and Afghanistan that shaped a generation to putting down Arab Spring uprisings and driving civil wars in Syria and Yemen - Arash Azizi reveals insights into Iran's actions across the Middle East, its pursuit of a nuclear programme, and why it sees the West as its enemy.