The commander of the overseas arm of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is in “perfect health” and will receive a medal from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei soon, the semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted a senior IRGC adviser as saying.
Two senior Iranian security officials told Reuters earlier that Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani, who travelled to Lebanon after the 27 September killing of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli air strike, had not been heard from since further Israeli bombings of south Beirut late last week.
“Commander Qaani is in perfect health and will receive the Fath Medal from the Supreme Leader in the coming days,” Ebrahim Jabbari told Tasnim.
Quds Force deputy commander Iraj Masjedi had on Monday denied reports that Qaani had been wounded in the course of Israel’s intensive air strikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
The Islamic Republic appointed Qaani as commander of the Quds Force after the political murder of his powerful predecessor Qasem Soleimani by the US in a drone strike in Baghdad in 2020.
IRGC Aerospace Commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh received the Fath Medal from Khamenei on Sunday for his central role in Iran’s 1 October missile strikes against Israel. Iran has awarded the medal since 1989 to war heroes, military commanders and politicians, especially those linked to the eight-year Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
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