(Reuters) – Iran’s Quds Force leader Esmail Qaani has actually not been spoken with given that Israeli strikes on Beirut late recently, 2 elderly Iranian safety and security authorities informed Reuters.
Qaani took a trip to Lebanon after the murder last month of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike.
Here are some realities concerning Qaani:
– Tehran called Qaani the head of the Revolutionary Guards Corps’ abroad military-intelligence solution after the United States executed his precursor Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad in 2020.
– Part of Qaani’s job because article has actually been to take care of Tehran’s paramilitary allies throughout the Middle East, in addition to in various other areas around the globe.
– According to individuals aware of both Qaani and Soleimani, in addition to Western armed forces and political experts, Qaani has actually never ever regulated the very same regard as his precursor Soleimani or kept the very same close connections amongst Iran’s allies in the Arab globe.
– While Soleimani held the reins of the Quds Force throughout a time when Iran’s proxies – from Lebanese Hezbollah to Iraqi Shi’ite Muslim militias to the Houthis of Yemen – expanded their power in the Middle East, Qaani has commanded their damaging by Israeli spies and warplanes.
– Qaani ended up being replacement leader of the Quds Force, the abroad arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, in 1997 when Soleimani ended up being the Force’s primary leader.
– When Qaani took control of he promised too united state dislodges of the Middle East in vengeance for Soleimani’s murder. “We promise to continue martyr Soleimani’s path with the same force … and the only compensation for us would be to remove America from the region,” state radio estimated Qaani as stating in advance of Soleimani’s funeral service in Tehran.
– Qaani, 67, was birthed in Mashhad, a conventional Shi’ite Muslim spiritual city in northeasternIran He defended the Revolutionary Guards throughout the Iran-Iraq battle in the 1980s.
– Qaani has likewise had experience of abroad procedures past Iran’s eastern boundaries, consisting of Afghanistan andPakistan He does not talk Arabic, unlike Soleimani that talked with complete confidence with Iraqi militias and Hezbollah leaders.
– He has actually taken on much less of a public character than Soleimani and little details is readily available on him on the internet or in dripped polite cable televisions.
– Unlike Soleimani, that for many years was extensively photographed on combat zones in Iraq and Syria along with the militias Tehran has actually equipped and educated, Qaani has actually chosen to maintain a reduced account and carry out a lot of his conferences and check outs to adjoining nations secretive.
(Editing by Giles Elgood and Alexandra Hudson)
