Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's al-Quds Force, Esmail Qaani. (Credit: AFP archive photo)
Esmail Qaani, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' al-Quds Force has not been seen in public since the massive Israeli bombing that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Sept. 27, and is reportedly "under house arrest" as the Iranian-led "Axis of Resistance" reels from security breach after security breach.
The UK-based news outlet Middle East Eye (MEE) spoke with 10 sources in Tehran, Beirut and Baghdad who said that Qaani and his team were under guard amid an ongoing investigation launched by Iran into how and through whom information is being leaked that has resulted in the assassination of the majority of Hezbollah's military leadership.
“The Iranians have serious suspicions that the Israelis have infiltrated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, especially those working in the Lebanese arena, so everyone is currently under investigation,” MEE cites the commander of an armed faction close to Iran as saying, in the report published on Oct. 10.
Suspicions that senior Iranian commanders may be implicated in the security breach were compounded when Nasrallah’s presumed successor, Hashem Safieddine, was targeted in another powerful Israeli bombardment exactly one week after Nasrallah was killed.
Qaani had showed up in Lebanon in the wake of Nasrallah's death “to assess the situation on the ground" and on the night of Oct. 4, he was expected to attend a meeting of the Shura Council, one of the party's key decision-making committees, at Safieddine's invitation. However, shortly before the meeting began, Qaani apologized and backed out, MEE learned. For two days, they were unable to contact him.
A similar pattern can be seen in the lead up to Nasrallah's killing. Quds Force Commander Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan flew into Beirut that same evening, and, according to the MEE report, was take directly from his plane to the operations room located underground in Haret Hreik, a neighborhood not far from the airport, in Beirut's southern suburbs. He arrived before Nasrallah, and MEE's sources say that it was only moments after Nasrallah entered the room that Israeli jets dropped dozens of 2,000-pound bombs.
“The breach was 100 percent Iranian and there is no question about this part,” a source close to Hezbollah told MEE.
While Nilforoushan was killed alongside Nasrallah, the coincidence of Qaani's narrow escape has raised alarms. However, his condition is still up for debate. Iranian sources quoted by the Sky News channel say that the al-Quds commander "suffered a heart attack during interrogation" and the Secretary General of the Arab Islamic Council in Lebanon, Sheikh Mohammad Ali Husseini, declared in an interview with the al-Arabiya channel that Qaani "no longer represents a threat to the world" and that "his case has been closed."
The Islamic Republic of Iran appointed Qaani commander of the Guardians' foreign military and intelligence service after the U.S. assassinated his predecessor, Qassem Soleimani, in a drone strike in Baghdad in 2020.
“The Iranians are now trying to determine the extent of the breach and its source," the commander told MEE. "The signs indicate that the source is the Revolutionary Guard, but it is not possible to be certain at this stage."