Iran’s Quds chief Esmail Qaani ‘under arrest over intelligence breaches’

Esmail Qaani, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ most elite corps, is reportedly being interrogated over claims of intelligence breaches that allowed Israel to infiltrate the IRGC.

The commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Esmail Qaani, is reportedly under arrest in Iran. Picture: AFP.

The Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ elite Quds Force is reportedly under arrest in Tehran and being interrogated over claims of intelligence breaches that allowed Israel to infiltrate the IRGC.

Multiple Arab and Israeli news outlets, including Sky News Arabic, report that Brigadier General Esmail Qaani is being investigated over alleged ties to Israel after a series of serious intelligence failures in Iran and Lebanon.

Qaani, 67, is one of the most powerful generals in Iran, after taking over as Quds chief when the force’s former legendary commander Qasem Soleimani was assassinated by the US in 2020.

Despite his powerful position at the top of the military force he never achieved the level of respect enjoyed by Soleimani, but his arrest strikes at the heart of the Revolutionary Guards and Tehran’s security forces.

Suspicions reportedly fell on him recently over serious intelligence failures in the Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah, particularly over the deaths of Hezbollah commander Hassan Nasrallah and his presumed successor Hashem Safieddine, both of whom were killed in major Israeli air strikes over the last fortnight.

Rumours have been swirling for days about the fate of the high profile Qaani; he has not been seen since Saturday’s strike that killed Safieddine, who was reportedly attending a meeting of Hezbollah’s Shura Council when the Israeli Defence Forces bombed their building in the Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut.

Amid speculation he had been killed in the strike, Tehran insisted Qaani was still alive and was even going to receive an award. But the highly regarded Middle East Eye news website, citing 10 different sources from Iran, Iraq and Lebanon, reported that he and his entire team were under arrest and were being interrogated.

Sky News Arabic also reported Qaani had suffered a heart attack under interrogation.

Esmail Qaain, right, with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, centre, then president Hassan Rouhani, left,, and judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi, second right, pray over the casket of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani in 2020.

Iran and Hezbollah have been shaken by the realisation Israeli spies had infiltrated their ranks after the deaths of Nasrallah and Safieddine in Beirut and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in an IRGC-secured guesthouse in Tehran. Exploding pagers and walkie talkies that killed and injured hundreds of Hezbollah operatives in an operation widely thought to be planned by Mossad also devastated confidence within the ranks of the Lebanese terror group and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Consequently, both organisations have been riven with distrust, both within their own ranks and in relations with each other and Iran’s security services.

“The Iranians have serious suspicions that the Israelis 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.

Another source said: “The breach was 100 per cent Iranian.”

Qaani regularly travelled between Iran and Lebanon to liaise with Hezbollah’s commanders and consequently knew the location of the Tehran-backed group’s bunker headquarters in Beirut, as well as the whereabouts of Nasrallah, who moved constantly to avoid being killed by Israel.

The Saudi Al-Hadath TV channel reported that Qaani had met with Nasrallah before his death, and had also met up with Hezbollah’s operations chief Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah’s operations chief who was assassinated by Israel in July.

According to MEE, Qaani arrived in Lebanon two days after Nasrallah’s assassination “to assess the situation on the ground.”

Citing Hezbollah sources, MEE reported that Qaani had been expected to attend the Shura Council meeting at Safieddine’s invitation on the day of the air strike, but backed out of the meeting shortly before it began.

“Israel targeted the venue of this meeting with a raid that was bigger and harsher than the raid that targeted Nasrallah,” a Hezbollah source told MEE. “Qaani was invited to this meeting and under the current circumstances he should have been present.”

Separately, a source told Sky News Arabic: “He was investigated for an intelligence brief. He was moved to a hospital (after his alleged heart attack) and his bureau chief is suspected of connections with Israel.”