IRGC Qods Force Commander Qassem Soleimani is going to spend a month in Iran's flood-hit areas in Lorestan and Khouzestan provinces to help flood victims, semi-official news agency ISNA reported on Friday April 5.

ISNA published a message from General Soleimani, in which he characterized the flood that washed away thousands of homes and many roads and bridges across Iran as "a hard divine test."

In the message, Soleimani praised Iran's armed forces campaign to help the people in flood-stricken areas "at the order of the Islamic revolution's leader Imam Khamenei."

Soleimani said that as more floods threaten the people he and other commanders and veterans are planning to set up relief stations in the flood-hit areas to help the people in the worst-hit areas such as Pol Dokhtar, Sousangerd and Bostan "until the situation returns to normal."

Iranians on social media have been criticizing current and former military commanders for show-off and populism in the flood-hit areas in a popularity contest.

Several posts on Twitter criticized IRGC commander-in-chief Mohammad Ali Jafari for shovelling sands into sandbags, saying that there are thousands of those who could do that, while his presence would have been more useful if he stayed away from the spotlight and instead tried to coordinate relief efforts and end the current chaos and inefficiency.

Others posted a video of former IRGC commander Mohsen Rezai walking among the ruins as flood-hit people tease him for being there to take selfies with people's misery.