Where in the World Is Esmail Qaani?

Amid mounting tensions Saturday as Iran braced for possible Israeli retaliation, a notable absence drew attention across the Iranian leadership and media circles: Brigadier General Esmail Qaani, the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force, seemed to have disappeared from public view. The whereabouts of this top military leader became a pressing question throughout the country’s power structures.

The Quds Force (lit. Jerusalem Force) is one of five branches of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) specializing in terrorism and military intelligence operations. It is responsible for extraterritorial operations, supporting pro-Iranian militias such as Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Houthis, and Shia militias in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan – the dictionary definition of state-sponsored terrorism.

The Quds Force reports directly to the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei. After Qasem Soleimani, who was like a son to the supreme leaders, was assassinated by the US, acting on Israeli intelligence in Iraq on January 3, 2020, his deputy, Esmail Qaani, took over.

Now the new Quds chief has not been heard from for quite some time. General Qaani, 67, was last observed in public at the Hezbollah offices in Tehran, just two days following the assassination of the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah by Israel in Lebanon. He was absent on Friday from the prayer service led by Khamenei in memory of his other assassinated son, Nasrallah.

According to three Iranian officials who spoke to the NY Times, General Qaani traveled to Beirut the previous week to engage with senior Hezbollah leaders and assist the group in recovering from the devastating Israeli attacks.

Incidentally, Ebrahim Amin al-Sayed, who was the candidate to replace Hashem Safi a Din as Secretary General of Hezbollah––after Safi a-Din was also assassinated––announced that he is not interested in the position and intends to pursue religious studies in Tehran.

But wait, it gets better. Sources told the Saudi news outlets Al-Hadath and Al-Arabiya that Qaani is now in “isolation” following the recent Israeli assassinations of prominent Iranian leaders. According to the same report, since October 7, Qaani visited the Iraq-Syria-Lebanon axis several times and met with Nasrallah and his chief of staff Fuad Shukar, both of whom were later assassinated in direct Israeli hits in south Beirut. So, he is under suspicion, which grew stronger when Qaani conveniently missed the Friday meeting in a sub-basement garage in Beirut that Israel destroyed with hundreds of tons of explosives that took down six residential buildings.

A member of the IRGC in Beirut told the NY Times that the lack of communication from high-ranking Iranian officials regarding General Qaani was injecting a sense of panic among the lower-ranking personnel.

Back in 2020, Iranian expatriate and political expert, Dr. Karim Abdian Bani Saeed told Al Arabiya Qaani’s appointment was hasty and his expertise fell short of the assassinated Soleimani.

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