Middle East player Iran weakened by internal woes

Iran stands accused by the West of playing a key role in unrest plaguing the Middle East, but twin bombings claimed by Islamic State group jihadis are a keen reminder of its own internal weaknesses, analysts say.

Wednesday’s double suicide bombing left about 90 dead during a ceremony near the tomb of Gen. Qasem Soleimani, on the fourth anniversary of the death of the revered former commander from powerful Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Soleimani, killed in January 2020 by a U.S. strike just after his arrival in Baghdad, had headed the Guards’ foreign operations arm, the Quds Force, overseeing Iranian military operations across the Middle East.