Iran's Quds Force commander visits Baghdad for talks with Iraqi officials

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, General Esmail Qaani, traveled to Baghdad on Monday evening for a series of meetings with Iraqi officials, Al-Hurra television reported. The visit came roughly 50 days before the expiry of an Iraqi government deadline for armed groups to hand over their weapons by September 30. According to the report, Qaani sought to prevent a clash between the Baghdad administration and the armed groups, and to meet with leaders of the State Administration Coalition and the armed factions. Sources within the coalition said Qaani flew to Baghdad himself rather than wait for a delegation expected to travel to Iran, after receiving information that Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani was preparing to deploy security forces in the Jurf al-Sakhr area. Separately, Baghdad-based counterterrorism and intelligence units dismantled a network in Babylon province that was preparing attacks using drones belonging to armed groups, the sources said. The coalition figures added that Qaani asked framework leaders to hold talks with Sudani to defuse the escalating tension between security forces and the armed factions, while the prime minister appeared determined to use state authority against groups that refuse to surrender their weapons.