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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 every week, is alive and properly, in accordance with his deputy, dismissing hypothesis that he was killed by Israeli air strikes focusing on Hizbollah in Lebanon.
Esmail Ghaani, who leads the Guard’s abroad army service, the Quds Power, was reportedly in Lebanon to supply assist to Tehran’s regional ally Hizbollah across the time that Israel constructed up its offensive towards 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.
Nonetheless, Brigadier Common Iraj Masjedi, Ghaani’s deputy for co-ordination affairs, informed 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 mentioned of Ghaani, whereas declining to supply additional particulars.
At a ceremony in Tehran on Monday to indicate solidarity with Palestinian youngsters and adolescents, the host introduced that Ghaani despatched his greetings and apologised for his absence, explaining that he was “unable to attend on account of his involvement in one other essential assembly”.
Ghaani assumed command of the Quds Power, 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 embrace 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 just lately, though one other Iranian commander, Abbas Nilforoushan, was reportedly killed alongside Nasrallah.
Ghaani’s final public look was greater than every 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 latest ceremony to honour the commander behind the latest strikes on Israel, which concerned about 180 ballistic missiles. The top of the Quds Power 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 towards Israel, analysts say.
Iran’s leaders have adopted a defiant stance within the face of rising tensions with Israel and the escalating risk 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 overseas minister Abbas Araghchi travelled to Beirut and Syria as an indication of solidarity with Hizbollah.
Oil minister Mohsen Paknejad additionally visited the oilfields and ports within the south of the nation, the place he promised staff a pay rise, amid hypothesis that Israel would possibly goal Iran’s oil installations in retaliation for the missile strikes.
