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The Eclipse of Iranian General Suleimani?
(Economist-UK) Maj.-Gen. Qassem Suleimani, 58, commander of the Quds Force, the foreign wing of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), has all but vanished from view in recent months. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most senior Shia cleric, issued a public rebuke of Suleimani on March 13, following a series of boastful remarks by the general about Iran's mighty influence in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Bahrain. "He is under the control of a council now and can no longer act as a de facto foreign minister," according to a well-placed source in Tehran. Mohammad Javad Zarif, the foreign minister, now dominates Iran's foreign policy - a break with recent years, when General Suleimani was often seen as Iran's power-broker abroad.