A statesman dies two deaths: His own and that of the world he tried to build. Iranian General Qasem Soleimani went through the first in 2020 when an American drone killed him at the behest of President Trump. The second came this year, as the edifice he imagined and helped create—a land corridor stretching from Iran to the Mediterranean—collapsed upon itself.
This year, Israel dealt Hezbollah—Iran’s ally in Lebanon—a string of painful blows. Hamas has been defeated as a conventional force, and to make things worse, Bashar al-Assad, a key piece of the puzzle, unceremoniously departed the country for a dacha in Moscow as opposition forces were closing in on the Syrian capital.
King among ruins
As the head of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force since 1998, Soleimani oversaw a period of tumult but also of the expansion of Iran's “area of influence"—an era that turned it into a King among ruins.
The fall of Saddam Hussein and the ensuing chaos in Iraq, the breakout of the Syrian revolution, the Arab Spring revolts (including in Yemen), the rise of the Islamic State (IS), and Iran’s ties with an increasingly confident Hezbollah all served as the pillars upon which Soleimani’s edifice was created. Substate actors emerged from the ruins of falling or past regimes, and Iran quickly befriended them.
By carefully building ties with sympathetic minorities, sending advisors and propping up these proxies with missiles and drones, Iran managed to break the wall of its own borders without having to officially invade any country. In an age where definitive military victory is elusive, making territorial expansion the exception rather than the rule, Iran managed to gain significant control over large swathes of territories in the region.
In doing so, it secured allies who could fight in its place without endangering the Islamic Republic itself. Hezbollah, the Houthis, several Iraqi militias, the now defunct al-Assad regime, as well as Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad all played a role in a loose but functional network that was part of Soleimani’s “Axis of Resistance”.
This axis was built on a narrative that was broader than Iran’s narrow Shiite identity, as Tehran was aware that this religious identity would narrow its ambitions. The Axis of Resistance mixes anti-imperialism with anti-US and anti-Israel sentiment while portraying itself as the defender of a Palestinian cause it cares little about.
Rings of fire and land corridors
Soleimani was the one who finalised an important land corridor as Iranian-backed militias managed to wrest control over the Iraq-Syria border. As a result, Iran and its allies had significant control over an uninterrupted area that went through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. After that, Soleimani and his allies could cross from one side of the border to the next.
This represents a force multiplier: By breaking the walls of borders, Iran created a versatile force that could mobilise not only assets from a certain country but units and militias from all of the countries controlled by Iran. Iraqi militias could now easily fight alongside Lebanese Hezbollah members, co-opted Syrian local defence units, Afghan refugees turned Iranian foot soldiers—all under the guidance of Soleimani.
It created a strategic depth that went beyond Iran while making sure it was not bearing the brunt of its own expansionist appetite as others were dying. By expanding outward, Iran could also apply pressure in three critical seas: The Arabian Gulf, which has always been Iran’s main naval avenue of influence; the Indian Ocean; and the Red Sea. It is stunning to think that the year the Soleimani edifice effectively crumbled is also the year we got the clearest demonstration of Iranian strength—one of which was the ability to nearly close down a key maritime checkpoint using missile and drone attacks.
Imagine now what Iran could do, as it controlled three seas and could even hope to do the same, if needed, in the Mediterranean. The Islamic Republic—an entrenched, terrestrial regime—managed to punch far above its weight, particularly when considering that it also faces significant domestic opposition.
The land corridor went further than this. After being hammered with sanctions, Iran has always sought to make sure it would have access to the world—or at least a segment of it. The land corridor was a long-term guarantee that Iran could never be isolated. It controlled an area that could be an avenue for investment and revenue with the help of allies from outside the region. It was situated in a region of the world that is key to ongoing efforts to better connect the world.
