An Iranian military source: The commander of the Iranian Quds Force is alive
A senior Iranian military source denied allegations that the commander of the Iranian Quds Force, Brigadier General Esmail Qaani, was injured.
The senior Iranian officer said, Brigadier General Esmail Qaani is fine, after Israeli media reported that Qaani might have been at the same place, where they claimed that Israeli attack targeted Hashem Safieddine, the potential candidate to succeed Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.
It’s noteworthy that this is the second time that news has been circulated about the assassination of the Revolutionary Guards leader, after information spread about his death in the same Israeli raid that targeted Nasrallah, while the Iranian state news agency “Mehr” denied the news before Qaani appeared in the representative office of Hezbollah last Sunday, where he offered his condolences to Hezbollah’s representative.
The Lebanese Hezbollah issued a statement after the spread of news attributed to sources in the party regarding the fate of its officials following the Israeli raids on the southern suburb.
Hezbollah’s media relations department said, “Some media outlets are publishing news attributed to sources in Hezbollah regarding the fate of its officials following the brutal raids on the southern suburbs… The latest of these outlets is Agence France-Presse, which attributed its news to senior sources in Hezbollah… We would like to reiterate that we don’t have sources in Hezbollah, and our position is issued in an official statement from Hezbollah’s media relations department”.
Earlier, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said last Friday that “the enemy of the Islamic nation is one, although its methods differ from one country to another”.
The Iranian news agency “IRNA” quoted Khamenei as saying that it’s necessary to tighten the belts of defense of the Islamic nation from Afghanistan to Yemen and from Iran to Gaza and Lebanon.
Khamenei’s statements came during the memorial service for Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in Tehran, stressing that Nasrallah was the banner of resistance and the brave defender of the oppressed.
The Iranian Supreme Leader explained that no one has the right to criticize the Lebanese for supporting their Palestinian brothers in defending their land.
He adding that the step taken by our armed forces to support Gaza a few days ago is legal and enjoys full legitimacy.
Khamenei stressed, “what our armed forces did is the least punishment for the crimes committed by the Zionist entity”.
Khamenei’s statements came during his Friday prayer in Tehran, which is the first sermon by the Supreme Leader in about 5 years, and came after the assassination of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli strike that targeted him in the southern suburbs of Beirut, along with a leader in the Iranian Quds Force.
