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The commander of the abroad arm of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard, who has not been seen in public for greater than per week, is alive and properly, in response to his deputy, dismissing hypothesis that he was killed by Israeli air strikes concentrating on Hizbollah in Lebanon.
Esmail Ghaani, who leads the Guard’s abroad army service, the Quds Drive, was reportedly in Lebanon to supply assist to Tehran’s regional ally Hizbollah across the time that Israel constructed up its offensive in opposition to the militant group. Israel has focused Hizbollah’s leaders with waves of air strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut and elsewhere within the nation.
The group’s chief Hassan Nasrallah was killed by Israeli strikes that flattened a minimum of six residential blocks within the Dahiyeh suburb of the Lebanese capital late final month. Israel additionally focused Hashem Safieddine, the inheritor obvious to Nasrallah, in strikes on Dahiyeh final week.
Nevertheless, Brigadier Common Iraj Masjedi, Ghaani’s deputy for co-ordination affairs, instructed native reporters on Monday that there was no want for the Guards to launch any official assertion to close down the rumours.
“He’s wholesome and properly and doing his job,” Masjedi stated of Ghaani, whereas declining to supply additional particulars.
At a ceremony in Tehran on Monday to point out solidarity with Palestinian kids and adolescents, the host introduced that Ghaani despatched his greetings and apologised for his absence, explaining that he was “unable to attend because of his involvement in one other essential assembly”.
Ghaani assumed command of the Quds Drive, which arms, trains and advises Iranian-backed militant teams throughout the area, in 2020 after its then chief Qassem Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq, though he doesn’t have the identical public profile of his predecessor.
Soleimani was revered in Iran and amongst its allies within the area, which embody Hizbollah, Hamas in Gaza, the Houthi rebels in Yemen and Iraq’s Shia militias.
The Guards haven’t confirmed whether or not Ghaani travelled to Beirut not too long ago, though one other Iranian commander, Abbas Nilforoushan, was reportedly killed alongside Nasrallah.
Ghaani’s final public look was greater than per week in the past, at a commemoration ceremony for Nasrallah at Hizbollah’s workplace in Tehran. He was notably absent from Friday prayers in Tehran final week, an occasion that was unusually led by Iran’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
He was additionally lacking from a current ceremony to honour the commander behind the current strikes on Israel, which concerned about 180 ballistic missiles. The top of the Quds Drive would have been anticipated to attend each occasions.
Israel has killed a minimum of 19 Guards members within the 12 months since Hamas launched its assault on Israel, primarily in Syria. If Ghaani has been killed in Lebanon, it may immediate Iran to contemplate additional strikes in opposition to Israel, analysts say.
Iran’s leaders have adopted a defiant stance within the face of rising tensions with Israel and the escalating menace of an all-out Center East battle.
President Masoud Pezeshkian flew to Qatar final week as Iranian airspace was closed due to safety fears, whereas international minister Abbas Araghchi travelled to Beirut and Syria as an illustration of solidarity with Hizbollah.
Oil minister Mohsen Paknejad additionally visited the oilfields and ports within the south of the nation, the place he promised employees a pay rise, amid hypothesis that Israel would possibly goal Iran’s oil installations in retaliation for the missile strikes.
