Iranian TV shows Quds Force head after weeks of speculation regarding his fate

Iran’s state TV showed on Tuesday a person who appeared to be the top commander of Iran’s Quds Force, Esmail Qaani, at a memorial ceremony for a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander killed in Lebanon, after his weeks-long disappearance from public view sparked reports and rumors over his fate.

Reports had said Qaani may have been killed in an Israeli strike in Lebanon that targeted top Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine earlier in the month, while later it was suggested he was under guard and being interrogated by Iran on suspicion of involvement in Israeli intelligence infiltration and of playing a part in Israel’s assassination last month of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

One report said he had a heart attack during questioning and was rushed to the hospital.

Tuesday’s footage showed Qaani at a memorial service in the Iraqi city of Karbala for Iran’s IRGC General Abbas Nilforoushan, who was killed in the airstrike that eliminated Nasrallah on September 27.

Tehran named Qaani head of the IRGC’s Quds Force after the United States assassinated his powerful predecessor, Qassem Soleimani, in a drone strike in Baghdad in 2020. The IRGC is a US-designated terrorist organization.

The Quds Force spearheads dealings with Iran’s proxy groups across the Middle East, which include Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Video on Iranian television of IRGC Quds Force commander Ismail Qaani at memorial for deceased Abbas Niloforoshan killed by an Israeli strike in Lebanon.

This is amid recent rumors and ostensible reporting that he’d been either killed, arrested, or had a heart attack. pic.twitter.com/qiL5EbfyUy

— Murtaza Hussain (@MazMHussain) October 15, 2024

Iran’s proxy forces in the Middle East have been attacking Israel since October 7, 2023, when the Hamas terror group launched a cross-border assault into the country, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, starting an ongoing war.

Hezbollah, which began attacking Israel daily in the wake of the Hamas attack, has suffered a series of devastating security breaches in recent weeks, including the explosions of thousands of their operatives’ pagers and walkie-talkies in an attack widely blamed on Israel, and Israeli airstrikes that have decimated the group’s leadership.

Earlier this month, Israel launched a ground offensive in southern Lebanon to push back the terror group, destroy its weapons stores and infrastructure, and remove the threat of an invasion similar to Hamas’s attack last year from Gaza.

Iran’s reported investigation into Israeli infiltration in its top tanks also comes after Iran launched some 181 ballistic missiles at Israel earlier this month, killing one Palestinian and wounding two Israelis, though most missiles were intercepted by air defenses.

Israel has vowed to respond to that attack, in a time and manner of its choosing.