The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is denying that Qods Force commander Gen. Qassem Suleimani said that Iran seeks to control Jordan, just as it controls Iraq and Lebanon. Iran has also removed the report of Suleimani’s remarks from the Iranian Students’ News Agency website.
Al Masdar reported on Monday:
Eralier on Sunday some media outlets reported General Suleimani had allegedly said that “Iran can control both of Iraq and Lebanon and also has such ability in Jordan.”
“Reports which recently emerged over alleged remarks by the commander of al-Quds force General Qassem Suleimani are baseless,” the statement said.
“Alleged analysis and remarks by General Suleimani on the situation in the region and Jordan are pure lies.”
According to Middle East Monitor, the Iranian embassy in Jordan also denied that the remarks had been made.
The Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported about Suleimani’s remarks on Monday:
Qassem Soleimani, commander of the elite Quds force — the foreign wing of the Revolutionary Guards — was addressing a youth conference in Tehran. His remarks were the first time a senior Iranian official has openly discussed Iranian ambitions in Jordan.
One of the Guards’ chief strategists who operates primarily beyond Iran’s borders, Soleimani was voted No. 2 in an online Man of the Year poll conducted by an Iranian news website. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif won the poll.
The Iranian Student News Agency quoted Soleimani as saying that Iran has a presence in Lebanon and Iraq and that both countries are yielding to Iranian interests. He added that Iran has the ability to control Jordan in the same way. Soleimani said the revolutions in the Arab world are slowly taking on a Muslim tone, similar to Iran’s Islamic revolution, and that Tehran should provide aid and guidance to these revolutions.
Despite the denials, Jordan’s parliamentarians found Suleimani’s comments disquieting.
MPs on Tuesday expressed dismay over remarks attributed to Qassem Suleimani, commander of Al Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, saying Tehran can control events in Jordan. …
Several local and foreign media outlets have quoted Suleimani, Iran’s top officer responsible for foreign operations, as reportedly saying that he believed Tehran had the ability to control events in Jordan, as it does in Iraq and Lebanon.
MP Wafa Bani Mustapha criticised Suleimani’s “provocative” remarks, calling on Iran to issue an official apology to the Kingdom especially now “when Amman-Tehran relations are improving following Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Nasser Judeh’s recent visit to Iran”.
In November, after the fall of Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, to Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, an Iranian official boasted that Iran controlled four Arab capitals.
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