Suleimani successor fails to convince at ‘baptism of fire’ summit

Senior Iraqi figures say Qaani lacks authority as standoff between the militias and the state continues

On a baking early summer evening last month, Iran's man in Iraq sat down in Baghdad with a group of militiamen to try to bring calm to the capital's foreboding streets.

Assembled in a room were leaders of the most feared militias in the land, men who had days before taken over a checkpoint leading to the seat of power, and were planning a military parade of their own through the Iraqi capital. Among them sat Esmail Qaani, an Iranian commander of the Revolutionary Guards Quds Force - a clandestine group at the apex of the Iranian military's foreign operations, which had been instrumental in Iraq's affairs through war, insurrection and now relative peace.