Al-Aqsa Storm Originates from Haj Qassem's Mature Strategy

The entire Axis of Resistance may have played a role in planning, training, and such issues, but the decision to require and when to do this operation was entirely up to the Palestinian Resistance.

Al-Aqsa Storm is one of Haj Qassem's grand strategies of conceding the decision and independence of the Resistance's cores, whose result has shown itself in the intellectual maturity and decision-making of the Resistance in Gaza.

The role of Haj Qassem in Palestine and the development of Palestinian Resistance movements is clear in the manner that Ismail Haniyeh, representing the people of Palestine, attended Soleimani's funeral and addressed him as the martyr of Quds.

“The American’s plan was to make the issue of Palestine be forgotten and to keep the Palestinians weak so that they would not dare to speak of fighting. This man empowered the Palestinians,” Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said.

“He did something to help a small region like the Gaza Strip to stand up to the Zionist regime despite all their pretensions. They (the people of Gaza) brought such adversity upon them (the Zionists) that they asked for a ceasefire after just 48 hours! This was done by Haj Qassem Soleimani.”

But did only military assistance and training and the delivery of various weapons over the decades turn martyr Soleimani into a martyr of Quds? The answer is no.

General Soleimani enjoyed the military genius of a strategic and military attitude. His mastery of military issues and the acquisition of this precise and sensitive knowledge and expertise in a practical but not merely theoretical way was the result of his actual presence on the battlefield and his continuous presence.

General Soleimani had tried at least three major battlefields namely the holy defense field, the battlefield against armed miscreants, and finally the battlefield in the cross-border and regional arena in Iraq and Syria.

But his most important characteristic was not his military ability, but his precise strategy in the way of confrontation and expansion of the Axis of Resistance.

One of the strategic thoughts of General Soleimani that shaped the intellectual system and personality of this great martyr was the macro strategic outlook in the Islamic world and the Axis of Resistance.

This is what we see today in the wide range of movements, tribes, attitudes, and thoughts among the movements and military groups of the Axis of Resistance. A thought that was tied to a proper understanding of the Palestinian position and the unifying issue of al-Aqsa Mosque.

Some individuals look at the relations between Iran and the Resistance movements in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Palestine as if they were the proxies of the Islamic Republic of Iran in decision-making, execution, strategy, and evolution.

But when we look at the actions of General Soleimani over the past four decades, it is obvious that he has given independence to these movements with a careful and accurate belief.

Al-Aqsa Storm is the current maturity of the Resistance Axis in design, decision, understanding, and operational strategy. The operation was carried out correctly and tactfully by the Palestinian decision.

The entire Axis of Resistance may have played a role in planning, training, and such issues, but the decision to require and when to do this operation was entirely up to the Palestinian Resistance.

Al-Aqsa Storm is one of Haj Qassem's grand strategies of conceding the decision and independence of the Resistance's cores, whose result has shown itself in the intellectual maturity and decision-making of the Resistance in Gaza.

There have always been and will always be disagreements or even analytical gaps between the Resistance Movements on various regional issues, but General Soleimani managed these relations with an exemplary and intelligent policy.

The General has pursued and managed Tehran's relations with other movements while managing alignment, meeting needs, and designing progress, but in the puzzle of the same context and regional and national interests of actors. For example, you can pay for the emergence and emergence of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).

The type of operation, structure, and management of the PMF is quite different from that of the Ansarullah in Yemen, the Resistance groups in Syria, and even the Shiite model of Hezbollah in Lebanon. The PMF is fully formed and established in accordance with the interests of Iraq, its special authority, and the culture of the people and ethnic considerations of Iraq.

Another feature of General Soleimani's macro and strategic vision is the belief in the people's place in Resistance and changing equations in every part of the region.

This can be seen in Soleimani's remarks: "Ninety-nine percent of the population of Palestine is Sunni. What do we want from Palestine today? Are we looking for the benefits of Shia? No, if someone in Palestine is seeking the interests of Shia people, we will not cooperate with them. I don't work with him."

The Leader believes that for each group at the regional level in the Resistance Front, a special role should be assigned in such a way that Resistance must not be limited only to Palestine, but Resistance must be spread at the regional level, so that the task of anyone facing the Israelis becomes clear, Khaled al-Qaddoumi, the Hamas representative in Tehran pointed out.

Martyr Haj Qassem Soleimani, as Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah put it, was not an individual, but a school. A school sincerity. To understand this school and continue on that path, it must be understood accurately, thoroughly, and comprehensively.

Ayatollah Khamenei highlighted the significance of Haj Qassem’s School on the Friday prayer on January 17, 2020: “Whenever purity exists, Allah the Exalted blesses it and He blesses His pure servants. Then our affairs become blessed, they grow and everyone will benefit from them. The results will prevail among the people. This originates from purity. The results of purity are the people’s love and loyalty, their tears and sighs, their presence and the revival of revolutionary spirit among the people.”

“However, if we wish to put these events in history, to value and appreciate them, and if we would like to see how precious they are, this happens only when we refuse to look at Haj Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi – our dear martyrs – merely as two individuals, but rather we should look at them as a school of thought. We should view our dear Shahid Sardar as a school of thought, as a guideline, and as an instructive lesson. Only then will the significance of the issue become clear.”