The deputy commander of Iran’s Quds Force said Monday that the commander of the military unit, Esmail Qaani, is in “good health” amid rumors that he’s been missing after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut.
“Many are asking us about Brig. Gen. Qaani’s condition. He is safe and sound and is carrying out his activities,” said Brig. Gen. Iraj Masjedi, according to Iran’s PressTV.
Masjedi’s comments came after a report from Reuters claimed that last week, Qaani was in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, during an Israeli airstrike that targeted Hashem Safieddine, a senior Hezbollah official who’s been missing but is not confirmed to have been killed.
The Reuters report, which cited unnamed Iranian sources, said Qaani was not in Dahiyeh to meet with Safieddine but claimed the Quds force commander had been out of contact since the strike.
Masjedi didn’t share any details about Qaani’s whereabouts and said it wasn’t necessary to issue an official statement. Also on Monday, Iranian media reports said Qaani delivered a message to a conference in Tehran being held in solidarity with Palestinian children. Iran’s Student News Agency said Qaani couldn’t attend the conference “due to his being in another important meeting.”
Qaani took over as commander of the Quds Force, a branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), after his predecessor, Qassem Soleimani, was killed by a US drone strike in Baghdad in 2020, an assassination that brought the US and Iran to the brink of war.
