Mystery surrounds the fate of a top Iranian military chief amid rumours he may have suffered a heart attack while being interrogated over claims he was an Israeli spy.
According to unconfirmed reports, Brigadier General Esmail Qaani, 67, was rushed to hospital after being grilled by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
His current condition is not known, Sky News Arabia has reported.
Qaani is rumoured to be suspected of involvement in a critical intel breach that allowed Israel to infiltrate Hezbollah.
The military chief has reportedly been absent since he travelled to Beirut two days after the enormous Israeli airstrike late last month that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and several other top commanders.
Qaani has not been heard of – even by his family – since the blitz on Hezbollah’s former top leader.
Commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Quds Force, Esmail Qaani, reportedly suffered a heart attack while being interrogated over claims he was an Israeli spy
Pictured: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military personnel are participating in the Ela Beit Al-Moghaddas (Al-Aqsa Mosque) military rally in Tehran, Iran, November 2023
Unconfirmed reports began to swirl, suggesting that he had been killed in a subsequent Israeli blast in Beirut alongside Hezbollah heir Hashem Saffeieddine, 60.
But sources have confirmed that Qaani was not present at the meeting.
Claims have now surfaced on Arabic and regional media that while he is alive, Qaani was being interrogated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on suspicion of involvement in Israeli intelligence infiltration.
Earlier this week, the Al-Arabiya news site, owned by the Saudi government, suggested that Qaani was ‘subject to surveillance and isolation, after the Israeli assassinations of prominent Iranian leaders.’
On Wednesday, Middle East Eye also reported that Qaani was alive and unharmed, and was likely being held in Tehran while being investigated by Iranian authorities.
‘The breach was 100 per cent Iranian and there is no question about this part,’ a source close to Hezbollah told Middle East Eye.
Lebanese and Iraqi sources claimed Qaani was ‘under house arrest,’ and being questioned by people under the direct supervision of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Unconfirmed reports began to swirl, suggesting that Qaani (pictured) had been killed in a subsequent Israeli blast in Beirut alongside Hezbollah heir Hashem Saffeieddine, 60
Two Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) armed military personnel pose for a photograph in front of an Iran flag during a pro-government protest rally in southern Tehran, December 29, 2022
Qaani became head of the Quds Force – the IRGC’s overseas unit – after the US killing of its previous leader, Qassem Soleimani, in January 2020
Hashem Safieddine (pictured) is believed to have been ‘eliminated’ at a meeting that Qaani was supposed to have attended
But the following day, a report emerged from Sky News Arabia alleging that during the course of interrogations by the IRGC, he had suffered a heart attack and was rushed to a local hospital.
The report also claimed that Qaani’s chief of staff, Eshan Shafiqi is currently being probed.
Some reports have suggested that Qaani came under suspicion by the Iranian government after an Israeli airstrike hit the presumed Nasrallah successor Hashem Safieddine, in a meeting that Qaani was supposed to attend.
This was the same strike in which Qaani was rumoured to have been killed in.
A Hezbollah source told Middle East Eye: ‘Israel targeted the venue of this meeting with a raid that was bigger and harsher than the raid that targeted Nasrallah.
‘Safieddine’s head was what was wanted, and no one else.
‘Qaani was invited to this meeting and under the current circumstances he should have been present.’
But on Wednesday, an adviser to the IRGC commander-in-chief, Hossein Salami, told Iranian news agency Tasnim that the Quds Force leader was ‘in perfect health,’ and that he would in fact receive a military honor from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ‘in the next few days.’
A photo taken on September 18, 2024, in Beirut’s southern suburbs shows the remains of exploded pagers on display at an undisclosed location
A man bleeding after his pager exploded in Beirut, Lebanon
Flames rise up a building in Lebanon amid the explosions
Pictures purportedly showing exploded hand-held radios have been circulating online
The commander of an armed faction close to Iran said: ‘The Iranians have serious suspicions that the Israelis have infiltrated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, especially those working in the Lebanese arena, so everyone is currently under investigation.
‘Nothing is certain at the moment. The investigations are still ongoing and all possibilities are open.’
It comes just a month after thousands of walkie-talkies, solar panels and fingerprint recognition devices used by Hezbollah fighters detonated across Lebanon, killing 20 and wounding hundreds of people including mourners at a funeral.
Security officials and experts theorised that Israeli spies had managed to infiltrate the supply chain and plant a small quantity of high explosives inside the communication devices before they were delivered to Lebanon some time this spring.
Qaani became head of the Quds Force – the IRGC’s overseas unit – after the US killing of its previous leader, Qassem Soleimani, in January 2020.
The Quds Force spearheads dealings with Iran’s proxy groups across the Middle East, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and the Houthis in Yemen.
Iran’s proxy forces have been targeting and launching attacks on Israel since Hamas launched its deadly attacks on southern Israel on October 7 last year.
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