Who is Esmail Qaani, commander of the Iranian Quds Force, missing after Israeli strikes on Beirut? – First message

Amid escalating tensions in West Asia, there is widespread speculation about the fate of Esmail Qaani, the commander of the Quds Force in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The Iranian brigadier general visited Lebanon following the assassination last month of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike in south Beirut.

While Iranian media have remained silent on his whereabouts, some Turkish and Israeli media have claimed that Qaani may be dead.

The report on Qaani’s possible death was also covered by The New York Timesciting unnamed IRGC officials.

Here’s everything we know about him.

Who is Esmail Qaani?

Qaani, 67, was born in Mashhad, a conservative Shiite Muslim religious city in northeastern Iran. He fought for the Revolutionary Guards during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s.

The IRGC brigadier general took over as head of Iran’s foreign operations after Qassem Soleimani was killed by a US drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020. He led Tehran’s paramilitary allies in West Asia, as well as in other regions of the world.

According to people close to Qaani and Soleimani, as well as Western military and political analysts, Qaani never commanded the same respect as his predecessor Soleimani or maintained the same close relations among Iran’s allies in the Arab world.

Qaani became deputy commander of the Quds Force, the overseas branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, in 1997, when Soleimani became the force’s commander-in-chief.

When Qaani took power, he vowed to drive U.S. forces out of West Asia in revenge for Soleimani’s killing.

“We promise to continue the path of martyr Soleimani with the same force… and the only compensation for us would be to withdraw America from the region,” state radio quoted Qaani as saying before Soleimani’s funeral in Tehran .

Qaani also had experience of overseas operations beyond Iran’s eastern borders, notably in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He does not speak Arabic, unlike Soleimani, who spoke fluently with Iraqi militias and Hezbollah commanders.

He has adopted a less public persona than Soleimani and little information is available about him online or in leaked diplomatic cables.

Unlike Soleimani, who over the years has been widely photographed on the battlefields of Iraq and Syria alongside militias armed and trained by Tehran, Qaani has preferred to keep a low profile and conduct most of his meetings and visits to the neighboring countries privately.

Where is he?

Qaani traveled to Beirut to meet with Hezbollah officials amid Israeli strikes against the terrorist organization.

He has not been heard from since the strikes in Beirut last week, according to Reuterswhich cited two senior Iranian security officials.

One of the officials said Qaani was in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh during a strike believed to have targeted Nasrallah’s presumed successor, Hashem Safieddine. Safieddine was also reportedly unreachable after the strikes.

Two days after Nasrallah’s elimination, Qaani was seen in Hezbollah’s offices in Tehran. His absence was noted during the Friday prayers of the leader of Hezbollah, led by Iranian Supreme Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Some media outlets have speculated that Qaani may have been subject to increased surveillance due to fear of Israeli operations following the October 1 Iranian missile strikes.

Did Israeli strikes kill Qaani?

According to the Israeli N12 According to this news, Qaani may have been injured during the Israeli strike.

Another Israeli media, Channel 12claimed that while Lebanese authorities had confirmed Qaani’s death, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had not confirmed it.

Several Saudi news channels further suggested that the Iranian commander could have been executed by Iran on suspicion of collaborating with the Israeli spy agency, Mossad.

Asked about reports that Qaani may have been killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut, Israeli army spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said the results of the strikes were still being determined. assessment. He said Israel carried out an attack last week on Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in Beirut.

“When we have more precise results from this strike, we will share them. There are a lot of questions about who was there and who wasn’t there,” he said during a briefing with reporters.

A Hezbollah official said Israel was not allowing the search for Safieddine to progress after the bombing of Beirut’s southern suburbs on Thursday. Officials said the group would not announce Safieddine’s fate until the search was complete.

Notably, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan, was killed along with Nasrallah in his bunker when it was hit on September 27 by Israeli bombs.

How will his death affect Iran?

If reports of his disappearance were true, it would be a blow to Iran and a major coup for Israel, which vowed to retaliate after last week’s Iranian missile attack.

According to the Daily MailExperts say Qaani’s death would significantly weaken Tehran’s military capability, but it would also inflame tensions in an escalating conflict.

He is also Tehran’s main contact with Hezbollah and other terrorist groups that are proxies for Iran, such as the Houthis in Yemen and Iraqi militias.

For the uninitiated, Qaani’s missing information comes as the Israeli military said Saturday that its forces have killed more than 400 Hezbollah fighters since they launched ground operations in southern Lebanon.

In one of the most powerful raids, Israel carried out 11 consecutive strikes on Beirut.

“Since the beginning of the maneuver (on the ground), the forces have eliminated some 440 terrorists on the ground and in the air, including 30 commanders of different ranks,” said military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. from a televised press briefing.

With the contribution of agencies