The Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson disclosed the name of Iran’s next ambassador to Iraq, who will replace the incumbent Iraj Masjedi, state media announced on Monday.

The Ambassador-Designate is Hossein Al-e Sadeq, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh announced in a press conference, IRNA reported.

Khatibzadeh said that Al-e Sadeq will be inaugurated “soon”, without giving a date. He did not provide any additional information on the newly-appointed envoy.

Outgoing Ambassador Masjedi was formerly a senior member of the extraterritorial Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). He was named Iran’s ambassador to Iraq in 2017. He was once an advisor to Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani.

Soleimani was assassinated, along with Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, in Iraq’s capital Baghdad by a US drone strike.

Tensions between the US and Iran soared after the incident, and shadowy groups targeted US troops and diplomatic missions in Iraq with rockets and drones. Western officials accused Iran of being behind the strikes.

Source » kurdistan24