For the first time since the circulation of the killing in Lebanon.. Iran broadcasts live images of the commander of the Quds Force, Esmail Qaani

Iranian television broadcast live images showing Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani at Mehrabad Airport in Tehran, which refutes reports that he was killed in Lebanon.

Last Wednesday, Tasnim News Agency quoted his advisor, Ebrahim Jabbari, as confirming that Qaani was fine and that he would receive a medal from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Two senior Iranian security officials told Reuters earlier that Qaani, who traveled to Lebanon after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli air strike on Sept. 27, had not been heard from since Israel intensified its bombardment of southern Lebanon last week.

Tehran appointed Qaani as commander of the Quds Force - responsible for the Revolutionary Guards' military and intelligence missions abroad - after the United States killed his predecessor, Qassem Soleimani, in a drone strike on Baghdad in 2020.

Last Sunday, Khamenei awarded the Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the Fath Medal for his decisive role in the missile attack launched by Tehran on Israel on October 1.

The conflicting reports about Qaani's fate come after the repeated Israeli assassinations that targeted leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas in Lebanon during the recent period, including the party's Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Abbas Nilforoushan.

Since September 23, Israel has launched the most violent and extensive attack on Lebanon since the beginning of the confrontations with Hezbollah on October 8, 2023, resulting in hundreds of casualties, including dead and wounded, in addition to the displacement of hundreds of thousands, some of whom are homeless.

(Al Jazeera)