Exclusive: Esmail Qaani under guard and questioned as Iran probes Nasrallah killing

Esmail Qaani, the leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force, is alive and unhurt but under guard and being questioned as Iran investigates major security breaches, multiple sources have told Middle East Eye.

Qaani has not been seen in public since Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a massive air strike on Beirut on 27 September, an event that rocked the anti-Israel Axis of Resistance alliance.

Since then, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has opened investigations into how Israel was able penetrate the Lebanese movement’s most senior leadership and identify where and when Nasrallah would be found.

Ten sources in Tehran, Beirut and Baghdad, including senior Shia figures and sources close to Hezbollah and in the IRGC, told MEE that even Qaani, one of Iran’s most senior generals, and his team are under lockdown as investigators seek answers.

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.

Over the past two months, Israel has killed several top leaders in the Iranian-led Axis of Resistance, including the majority of Hezbollah’s military leadership.

Suspicions that senior Iranian commanders may have been compromised were compounded when Nasrallah’s presumed successor, Hashem Safieddine, was apparently killed in another powerful Israeli strike on a secret subterranean Hezbollah base on 4 October.

Safieddine is believed to have been killed at a meeting of Hezbollah’s Shura Council, which includes the party’s most senior leaders, sources said. Within minutes of arriving, he was hit by a strike so powerful that it demolished four large residential buildings.

'The breach was 100 percent Iranian and there is no question about this part'

- source close to Hezbollah

The fate of Safieddine and his companions is still unconfirmed, as Israeli aircraft shoot at any rescue workers or Hezbollah members that try to reach the site.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Safieddine had been "taken out", but an Israeli military spokesperson later said he could not confirm that he had been killed.

Qaani arrived in Lebanon two days after the killing of Nasrallah, accompanied by several IRGC commanders and other figures “to assess the situation on the ground”, according to MEE's sources.

But after the attack on Safieddine all contact was lost with him for two days, they added.

Speculation has mounted online and in the media that Qaani was wounded or killed in Israel’s continuous bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs.

But a source in the IRGC and senior Iraqi officials told MEE that the Quds Force leader was not wounded and was not with Safieddine at the Shura Council meeting.

On Tuesday, Iraj Masjedi, deputy commander of the Quds Force and former Iranian ambassador to Baghdad, told reporters that Qaani is “in good health and is carrying out his daily duties”.

However, eight sources from Iran, Iraq and Lebanon said he is being detained while investigations continue.

“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,” the commander of an armed faction close to Iran told MEE.

“Nothing is certain at the moment. The investigations are still ongoing and all possibilities are open.”

Breach '100 percent Iranian'

Iran's investigations into the circumstances surrounding Nasrallah's death have also focused on the final movements of Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan, a Quds Force commander who was killed alongside the Hezbollah leader.

Nilforoushan began overseeing operations in Syria and Lebanon after his predecessor, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, was killed in an Israeli strike on an Iranian consulate building in Damascus in April.

Two sources close to Hezbollah and Iraqi sources familiar with events told MEE that Nasrallah had been outside Beirut’s southern suburbs the night before his killing, but returned to the area to meet with Nilforoushan and several of the party’s leaders in their usual fortified operations room.

Nilforoushan, who had flown into Beirut that evening from Tehran, was taken directly from the plane to the operations room beneath the residential neighbourhood of Haret Hreik, the sources said. He arrived there before Nasrallah.

'The Iranians have serious suspicions that the Israelis have infiltrated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps'

- Commander of an armed faction close to Iran

The strike that targeted the meeting took place shortly after Nasrallah entered the room, the sources said.

“The breach was 100 percent Iranian and there is no question about this part,” a source close to Hezbollah told MEE.

Iranian state media announced Nilforoushan’s death as a “martyr” who died alongside Nasrallah.

Sources close to Hezbollah told MEE that Qaani was in Lebanon and had been expected to attend the Shura Council meeting at Safieddine's invitation on the day of the air strike.

But Qaani apologised and backed out of the meeting shortly before it began, they said.

“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,” said a source close to Hezbollah.

“Qaani was invited to this meeting and under the current circumstances he should have been present.”

It is not clear where Qaani is now. Eight sources say he is in Tehran but another said he is still in Beirut.

Lebanese and Iraqi sources have described Qaani as being “under house arrest” and said he is currently being questioned by figures under the direct supervision of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The commander of an Iranian-backed armed faction told MEE that the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ political leader, in Tehran in July had heightened suspicions that Iran's security forces had been badly penetrated.

Haniyeh was killed in an explosion at a guest house secured by the IRGC during a visit to Tehran to attend the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

“The Iranians are now trying to determine the extent of the breach and its source. The signs indicate that the source is the Revolutionary Guard, but it is not possible to be certain at this stage,” the commander said.

“All that can be said now is that the breach is very large and the losses it caused are much greater than anyone could have expected.”