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 Soleimani is the commander of Iran's al-Quds brigade and has been
a key figure in the fight against the Sunni Islamist group in Iraq.
That fight has been led not by Iraq's army but by Iranian-backed
Shi'ite militias.
But in August, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told Soleimani
that a planned assault on the Sunni city of Ramadi should be left to
the Iraqi army, according to a government official and two
diplomats.
Abadi, a 64-year-old Shi'ite, wanted the militias to stay away to
avoid inflaming ethnic tensions, the sources said.
Abadi's office declined to comment on the story, which has been
repeated in Baghdad's diplomatic circles for months. Three Iraqi
politicians denied it ever happened.
But the government official and the diplomats said the incident was
one of a series of moves by Abadi to assert his authority as leader
and to distance himself from Tehran and the militias that came to
Baghdad's rescue in 2014 and early 2015.
Abadi has begun to push for reconciliation between Iraq's Shi'ites
and Sunnis, and for better relations with Sunni Arab neighbors like
Saudi Arabia, they said.
 If he can bridge the gap between rival sectarian communities as he
has promised, he will have gone a long way towards reuniting a
country which has been deeply riven since the fall of Saddam Hussein
in 2003.
According to the government official and the two diplomats, Abadi
also objected to Soleimani's plane landing at Baghdad airport
without prior permission. Abadi was also irritated that Soleimani
used an official VIP hall at the airport when entering Iraq, even
though he was not officially invited by the government.
The deterioration in their relationship, the sources said, began in
August when Soleimani attended a top Iraqi security meeting run by
Abadi and behaved in, what one source said, was "a bossy manner as
if Iraq was an Iranian protectorate".
This, the sources said, had led Abadi to ask Soleimani why he was at
the meeting. The Iranian general had then left.
"Abadi questioned his presence. It was a matter of Iraqi sovereignty
and nationalism," one Western diplomat said. Abadi's office declined
to comment.
The Iraqi government official said Abadi and Soleimani had not
fought but were "keeping an operational, business-like relationship.
We can't say it's warm".
Whatever the case, Soleimani has receded from public view in Iraq in
the past six months. The omnipresent posters and television images
of him on the battlefield have all but disappeared.
There are likely to be limits to that change. Iran's allies within
Abadi's Shi'ite camp are pushing back against his more muscular
stance, while the collapse in oil prices has cut the government
budget, said Hisham al-Hashemi, an Iraqi government adviser and an
expert on Islamic State.
For now though, Abadi seems to be trying to deliver on his initial
address to parliament in 2014 in which he painted a vision of a
decentralized and united Iraq.
VICTORY IN RAMADI
The army's victory in Ramadi against the ultra-hardline Sunni
militant group was a key moment.
An elite corps of the Iraqi army dislodged Islamic State from the
city, the largest in western Iraq, in the final days of 2015.
Support came from U.S. warplanes while Sunni tribesmen held the
ground behind the army lines.
 The army is now preparing to take on Islamic State in Falluja, a
bastion of Sunni jihadists to the west of Baghdad, and plans to
start a push towards Mosul, the largest northern city. It was the
fall of Mosul to Islamic State in 2014 that forced the exit of
Abadi's predecessor Nuri al-Maliki. Many Iraqi lawmakers blamed
Maliki for the Iraqi army's defeat in the city. Crucially, Maliki
lost the backing of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a reclusive
octogenarian who enjoys almost mythical status among millions of
Shi'ite followers and wields authority that few Iraqi politicians
openly challenge.
Sistani called for a consensus candidate. Abadi was Maliki's
replacement, in part because he promised to heal the sectarian rift
between Iraq's Shi'ite and Sunnis.
The new prime minister grew up in Baghdad amongst Sunni, Christians
and other communities.
"His father was a prominent doctor. (Abadi) is used to living with
other communities," said Mustafa Alani, an Iraqi security analyst
with the Geneva-based think-tank Gulf Research Center.
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After more than 20 years in exile in Britain where he studied in the
northern English city of Manchester and worked as an electrical
engineer, Abadi returned to Iraq in 2003 following the U.S.-led
invasion that toppled Saddam's Baath party. Like Maliki, Abadi is
a member of the Shi'ite Dawa Party, which along with other Shi'ite
groups carried out a U.S.-initiated de-Baathification campaign,
effectively removing Sunnis from state, army and police positions.
A decade ago, Abadi backed that campaign. But when he became prime
minister he promised to unite the country. At first, he struggled to
assert himself. Some U.S. officials then perceived him as a weak
leader who needed the backing of the militias.
But in the past few months that perception has begun to shift. On
Feb. 9 he renewed a bid to dismantle the country's patronage system
and root out corruption. Abadi said he wants a government reshuffle
with technocrats as ministers.
The move surprised several groups of his ruling coalition, the
government official said. "He made the announcement straight to the
media, without consulting the party leaders."
Abadi has also improved relations with Iran's regional rival Saudi
Arabia. In December, Riyadh reopened its embassy in Baghdad, 25
years after it shut following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. Saudi
Ambassador Thamer Al-Shabhan told newspapers the move would enable
greater cooperation against extremism.
The closer ties survived their first test in January, when Saudi
Arabia executed Shi'ite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. The Iraqi government
resisted pressure from Shi'ite groups to break off ties and instead
offered to mediate between Riyadh and Tehran.
"Abadi has kept himself at arm's length" from Iran, said a European
diplomat. "He has only been to Tehran two or three times in 18
months, not like his predecessor who would go all the time."
THE LIMITS TO CHANGE
Convincing Sunni Iraqis that he is sincere will not be easy.
Parliamentary speaker Salim al-Jabouri, the most senior Sunni in the
Iraqi state, said Abadi is showing good intentions but "does not use
all of his authority to do what he promised to do".
 Many Shi'ite politicians feel like Abadi is already too
accommodating. Shi'ite political parties continue to back
de-Baathification measures affecting tens of thousands of Sunnis.
They also oppose the creation of a National Guard that would
incorporate provincial forces like the Sunnis who are fighting
Islamic State.
The government official said most Shi'ite politicians still have a
strong anti-Sunni feeling. After Abadi's recent call for reforms,
some Shi'ite government officials even discussed replacing the prime
minister, the official said.
The European diplomat said the resistance Abadi faced made it hard
to implement real change. "The feeling remains that Sunnis should
pay the price for what they have done under Saddam," he said.
The sharp drop in oil prices and growing economic crisis in Iraq
make things even harder."For the prime minister you can't not spend
on the military,otherwise you can't defeat (Islamic State)," the
same diplomat said. "He has a lot less money to play with than any
of his predecessors have had since 2003."
Abadi's limited influence on the Shi'ite militias was apparent in
January when his government failed to stop revenge attacks on Sunni
civilians after Islamic State carried out a series of bombings east
of Baghdad.
"Instead of holding Shi'ite militias to account the authorities have
turned a blind eye to this shocking rampage. In some cases
abductions and killings took place in full view of local
authorities, who failed to intervene," said James Lynch, Deputy
Director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa
Programme.
(Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Samia Nakhoul, Simon
Robinson and Peter Millership)
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