As Iran awaited an Israeli counterattack on Saturday, senior officials and members of the Iranian news media all asked the same question: Where is Brig. General Esmail Ghani, the country’s top general and commander of its elite Quds forces?
Iranian news media reported that authorities in Iran have yet to provide a clear answer.
“Public opinion is waiting for the news that our general is alive and well,” Iranian news site Tabnak said. Another news site, Shareeh Ghabar, published a lengthy biography of the general’s decades of service as a veteran of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The Quds Force is the branch of the Guard tasked with external operations, including overseeing Iran-backed militant groups in the region such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, militant groups in Iraq and Syria, and Hamas in Gaza. . The network is known in the region as the “Axis of Resistance”.
Concerns about General Ghani followed reports in some Israeli and Arab media that he had been killed or wounded in one of Israel’s latest attacks on Beirut, Israel on Saturday. The Guards are yet to release a statement confirming Gen Ghani’s whereabouts.
General Ghani, 67, was last seen in public at Hezbollah’s Tehran offices two days after Israel killed the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in Lebanon, according to photos released by Iranian media. Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Mr. The general went missing on Friday when he led a prayer service in memory of Nasrallah.
General Ghani traveled to Beirut last week to meet senior Hezbollah officials and recover from a wave of Israeli attacks in Lebanon, three Iranian officials said. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly and asked not to be named.
Mr. Iran fired nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday in retaliation for the killing of Nasrallah and the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Israel has vowed to retaliate.
Iranian military officials said on Saturday that all of the country’s armed forces had been placed on high alert in anticipation of Israeli attacks. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Arakhsi, in Damascus on Saturday, warned in a post on X Iran’s response to any Israeli attack “would be strong, and they could put our resolve to the test.”
A member of the Guards stationed in Beirut, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information, said senior Iranian officials’ silence about General Ghani was creating panic among rank-and-file members.
General Ghani is known for his stern and cold demeanor. He has been eager to follow up on plans started by his predecessor, General Qassem Soleimani, to consolidate Iranian-backed armed groups in various countries that are coordinated and self-sufficient in the production of weapons such as missiles and drones. Iran’s training and assistance.
US assassinated General Soleimani in Iraq in 2020.
Iranian media called on authorities to confirm the general’s whereabouts. “If General Ghani is alive, the best way to clarify and reassure that he is fine is to release a short video about him,” Tabnak said.
Alyssa J. Rubin Contributed reporting from Beirut.
