The mysterious fate of deceased Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force Chief Esmail Qaani, of Mossad activities, and of what targets Israel will strike in Iran may all be connected in one thick smokescreen.
The IDF may have killed Nasrallah on September 27 because of a breach in security relating to Qaani and his staff.
Since September 29, when Israel also killed Nasrallah’s expected replacement, Qaani has disappeared from public view, with contradictory story after story being pushed out about why.
At first, there were rumors that he was killed in the strike. This would have made him a martyr, but now seems to be discredited, and these rumors seem to have been issued to cover his being whisked off to a secret location.
Was he whisked off to the secret location for his own protection after a number of other top IRGC officials have been killed by the IDF this year and in recent weeks?
Or was he hidden away to interrogate him or his staff members for responsibility for the security breaches that led to so many top Hezbollah officials being killed by Israel?
Most colorful of all is the story that he died while being interrogated.
This would be good cover for him keeping some sense of honor if Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei decided to have him killed or deposed.
Briefly, an Iranian official publicly announced that he would soon be receiving a public medal, seemingly to defray the negative rumors. However, when that did not transpire in the days after, most of the speculation returned to a much more negative scenario for Qaani.
Out of business
If Qaani is “out of business,” he would not be the first top IRGC official to be booted out of office for repeatedly being embarrassed by the Mossad.
Qaani’s predecessor, Qasem Soleimani, was assassinated by the US, with Israeli assistance in certain intelligence aspects,
In June 2022, seemingly right after the success of Mossad and Turkish intelligence efforts at saving Israelis in Turkey from the Islamic Republic, Iran dismissed the powerful chief of IRGC intelligence, Hossein Taeb.
The station gave no further details about Taeb’s dismissal. Taeb had a long reign as IRGC intelligence chief, dating back to 2009.
During his reign, IRGC intelligence further eclipsed the traditional Iranian Ministry of Intelligence Service, which works for Iran’s president.
Before becoming IRGC intelligence chief, Taeb worked at the office of Iran’s top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
However, in 2022, TV said Taeb had been moved laterally to become an advisor to IRGC Commander-in-Chief Hossein Salami.
In other words, he was spared the public humiliation of rumors of being a traitor, having a traitor staff member, or being accidentally killed in interrogation.
Even if Qaani emerges alive and receives a reward, he may not be a lame duck.
Simply the act of allowing such rumors to swirl now for two weeks will have taken a toll on his reputation and authority.
And all of this is happening as Israel is gearing up to attack Iran.
This gearing up likely includes not just the IDF but also the Mossad, and it may involve Tehran’s nuclear program.
Whatever targets it involves, Khamenei would want his A-team ready to try to provide security and to fend off any Israeli attack.
It seems apparent that Qaani is no longer on that A-team, and that as with Taeb, the Mossad’s prowess has been significant to bring this about.
Cutting through the haze of smoke and mirrors, it seems that the death of Nasrallah and his replacement at the hands of the IDF and the Mossad led Khamenei to conclude that Qaani needed to be “benched” or worse in order to put up the best possible fight to protect Iran’s nuclear program and its other strategic military and intelligence assets from being hammered, the way Hezbollah was just hammered over the last month.
