The deputy commander of Iran’s Quds task force confirmed that his superior, General Esmail Qaani, is still safe after the raids in Lebanon.
“Many people asked us what happened to General Esmail Qaani? He is still healthy and working normally. Some parties have asked us to make an official statement. Why do we have to make a statement? ? This is not necessary,” General Iraj Masjedi, deputy commander of the Quds task force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), responded to the news agency on October 7. Tasnim.
This is the first statement from Iranian officials since rumors spread that General Esmail Qaani, commander of the Quds task force, lost contact with Tehran after a series of Israeli raids in Lebanon last week.
“Israeli media is deliberately spreading rumors that the Iranian general was killed,” Tasnim agency accused.
After Hezbollah supreme leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed by Israel on September 27, General Qaani went to Lebanon. The visit is said to assist Hezbollah in rebuilding its leadership.
By October 6, Reuters Citing two senior Iranian security officials, neither Tehran nor the armed group Hezbollah have been able to contact General Esmail Qaani in the past few days.
Unnamed officials said that Mr. Qaani was present in Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold on the southern outskirts of Beirut, when the raid targeted Hashem Safieddine, the cleric most likely to succeed Nasrallah. However, a source said that General Qaani did not meet Mr. Safieddine at that time.
The Israeli army refused to comment on the rumor that General Qaani was “missing” because it had not yet evaluated the results of the attack on Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in the Lebanese capital last week.
Quds is a special force on the IRGC payroll, in charge of all of Tehran’s combat activities abroad, known as “the extended arm that helps Iran increase its influence in the Middle East”.
Quds special forces were first deployed during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) and began sponsoring a series of armed groups in the region. Under direction from Tehran, Quds special forces have established, developed relationships, trained and advised militia groups in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine.