Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf has said that foreign powers have no place in the emerging political order of the Middle East, arguing that outside influence over relations between regional countries is steadily weakening.
Qalibaf made the remarks on Wednesday during a visit to Iraq, where he paid tribute to former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the former deputy head of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces. The two commanders were killed in a US airstrike near Baghdad airport in January 2020, according to Tasnim News Agency.
In a message posted on X, Qalibaf addressed the two men as “Dear Abu Mahdi and Haj Qassem” and described their deaths as part of a struggle whose effects were still shaping the region.
“This is the very fruit of your struggle and your blessed blood,” he wrote. “In the new regional order, the intervention of foreign powers in relations among countries is rapidly declining.”
His comments reflected Tehran’s long-standing call for regional countries to manage their own security and political affairs without direct involvement from the United States or other outside powers. During his Baghdad visit, Qalibaf also urged closer cooperation among countries in the region and presented stronger ties between Iran and Iraq as an important foundation for that vision.
Qalibaf further claimed that the United States was seeking an “honorable exit” from the region. He also said that Israel’s “From the River to the Sea” project had become a “futile dream”, using language that reflects Iran’s sharp opposition to Israeli policies and ambitions.
The Iranian speaker’s visit carries particular symbolic weight because it began at the site where Soleimani and al-Muhandis were killed. The location has become a memorial and a powerful reminder of the close, and often politically sensitive, relationship between Iran and Iraq.
Qalibaf summed up his message with a brief statement about the ties between the two neighbouring nations: “Our brotherhood is our strength.”
His visit comes at a time of continuing regional tensions, debates over foreign military presence and calls for greater cooperation on security, trade and political affairs. Iran says a stronger regional partnership can create a new balance of power, one shaped by neighbouring states rather than distant capitals.
