Quds Force Tries to Maintain the Balance in Iran’s Afghanistan Policy

In a 2008 message to General David Petraeus, the commander of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, the late Major General Qassim Suleimani, then the chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, wrote: “You should know that I … control the policy for Iran with respect to Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza, and Afghanistan.” At the time, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, himself a Quds Force veteran, served as Iran’s ambassador to Iraq but reported directly to Suleimani. In October 2021, Kazemi Qomi was appointed special envoy to Afghanistan, and since December 2022, he has served as Iran’s ambassador to Afghanistan. As in his previous posting in Iraq, Kazemi Qomi may be reporting to the Quds Force chief, Ismail Qaani, rather than the Foreign Ministry. But regardless of the chain of command from the Iranian Embassy in Kabul to Tehran, Kazemi Qomi appears to be engaged in the difficult balancing act of improving relations with the Taliban regime while maintaining relations with Iran’s traditional allies, the Afghan Shia minority.

• March 19: According to Tasnim News, an Iranian delegation led by Hassan Kazemi Qomi, Iran’s ambassador to Afghanistan, was received by the Taliban’s foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi. Kazemi Qomi reportedly expressed Iran’s interest in purchasing Afghan agricultural products and helping the country develop its agricultural sector. The parties also reportedly discussed expanding the rail network connecting Iran to Afghanistan.
• March 26: Tasnim News reported that while receiving Kazemi Qomi, Khalil Haqqani, the Taliban’s minister of refugees, suggested the establishment of a joint Iranian-Afghan committee to investigate the plight of Afghan refugees living in Iran and monitor trafficking in the border area.
• March 26: On the dual occasion of the Persian holiday of Nowruz and the month of Ramadan, Kazemi Qomi received members of the Shia Ulema Council in Kabul and, according to Tasnim News, “considered the engagement of the Afghan Shia with the Taliban regime, positively and in line with the societal cohesion and solidarity of Afghanistan.”

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