The Iranian regime is known for using execution as an ideal weapon to silence opponents. who demanded a better quality of life and more freedoms, in the wave of protests that began last December, for example.
But the ayatollahs also use this crushing of the opponent if they find cracks in their own ranks. And now this is what is believed to have happened to one of Iran’s most powerful military figures, whose whereabouts remain unknown after becoming the focus of rumors that he was an Israeli spy. The “man of nine lives”, the one who always escapes enemy attacks, is perhaps an agent of the ?
Brigadier General Esmail Qaani of the , is said to have aroused the suspicion of his superiors after emerging unscathed from the airstrike at the start of the war that killed , Iran’s former supreme leader, as well as numerous senior officials and potential successors, on February 28. In the Middle East there is speculation about his possible house arrest or execution, media outlets such as.
As head of the Quds Force, one of the five branches of the IRGC, the 68-year-old has been blamed for exporting Iranian terrorism by training and equipping Islamic revolutionary groups outside Iran since 2020. The call, so weakened now.
His name gained special prominence when he replaced , who was assassinated by order of the United States in the last month of his first term, in 2020.
Last week, several articles pointed to Qaani’s alleged tendency to escape incidents that have caused the death of other high-ranking people. One of them claimed that the general had “spent the last two years building a reputation for his extraordinary ability to emerge unscathed while everyone around him was dying.”
One of the incidents involved the massive attack against senior IRGC commanders in Israel and the US against Iran last June. He was initially believed to have died, but later appeared at a public event dressed in civilian clothes and with a baseball cap pulled down. This evoked a similar sequence of events in October 2024.
Rumors then increased with reports that Tel Aviv had published a list of Iranian and Iran-linked officials it wanted to eliminate in the current round of fighting. During the weekend that marked the start of the war, that list was declared “complete”, but General Qaani’s name was not included.
A Persian-language account on X, believed to be run by the Israeli spy agency Mossad, denied that General Qaani was one of its spies last year. Since the attack that killed Khamenei nine days ago, numerous social media accounts of dubious origin have alleged that General Qaani was a long-time Israeli agent, some of which have superimposed his head on an Israeli uniform. There are also reports that General Qaani is being interrogated by the internal security service of the Revolutionary Guard.
In a war that figures in the United States, such as the Secretary of War himself, seem determined to present as an action movie, this story has the hallmarks of a spy thriller. An Israeli source with intelligence experience told the British newspaper: “Ultimately, no one knows.” “Perhaps the truth is that he is who he says he is, loyal to the Iranian regime, and all this talk is part of an operation to undermine him and his work against Israel,” he elaborates.
Powerful intelligence
The speculation comes against the backdrop of what appears to be a surprising Israeli penetration into the Iranian security system. Hints have emerged as to how they carried out Khamenei’s assassination (now succeeded by his son, ), including the .
Mossad is also said to have been operating on the ground during the June War to help eliminate anti-aircraft defences.
It is unknown whether any Israeli agents were inside Iran during the preparations for the current conflict.
However, former agents have previously claimed that the Mossad is now able to extract vast amounts of data from Iran digitally, even persuading Iranians to pass it on to them, unaware that they are dealing with Israeli intelligence.
According to various reports, General Qaani is seen as a less visionary and transformative figure than Soleimani within IRGC circles. However, the Iran-Iraq war veteran was seen as loyal to the regime, bringing decades of experience to his role in exporting terror to the region.
