The top Commander of Iran's Quds Force Esmail Qaani is in 'good health', the force's deputy commander Iraj Masjedi said on Monday, after Iranian security sources told Reuters he had been out of contact since strikes on Beirut last week.
Brigadier General Esmail Qaani, Majid Asgaripour/WANA via Reuters
The top Commander of Iran's Quds Force Esmail Qaani is in 'good health', the force's deputy commander Iraj Masjedi said on Monday, after Iranian security sources told Reuters he had been out of contact since strikes on Beirut last week.
"He is in good health and is carrying out his activities. Some ask us to issue a statement... there is no need for this", Masjedi was quoted as saying by state media in reference to Qaani.
One of the officials speaking to Reuters said Qaani was in Beirut's southern suburbs, known as the Dahiyeh, during a strike last week that was reported to have targeted senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine. The official said he was not meeting Safieddine.
Israel has been hitting multiple targets in Dahiyeh as it pursues a campaign against Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah.
Tehran named Qaani the head of the Revolutionary Guards Corps' overseas military-intelligence service after the United States assassinated his powerful predecessor Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad in 2020.
The Quds Force heavily influences its allied armed groups across the Middle East.
Reporting by Elwely Elwelly
Iran and the United States will hold a new round of nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday to resolve their decades-long standoff over Tehran's atomic aims, under the shadow of President Donald Trump's threat to unleash military action if diplomacy fails.
Israel has not ruled out an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities in the coming months despite President Donald Trump telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the U.S. was for now unwilling to support such a move, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
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