The 30-year-old defender has so far played in Romanian club Dinamo Bucuresti, French clubs Dijon, Nimes and Ajaccio and Belgian teams Standard Liege and Gent.
Diabete, who was a member of Ivory Coast U-17 and U-20 football teams, has joined Foolad from French club FC Niort.
He is Foolad’s fourth foreign player after the Iranian club completed the signing of Brazilian striker Luciano Pereira Mendes, Cameroonian forward Raphael Messi Bouli and Japanese midfielder Takafumi Akahoshi in the current season.
The Ahvaz-based football team sits seventh in Iranian league with 25 points, 16 points adrift of leader Persepolis.