After controversy about his fate, Esmail Qaani makes first public appearance

Shafaq News/ On Tuesday, Iranian television broadcast live footage, showing the Commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Esmail Qaani, at Mehrabad Airport in Tehran.

Iranian media reported that Qaani’s appearance at the airport was during a memorial ceremony for Abbas Nilforoushan, the Deputy Commander of Operations of the IRGC, who was killed along with Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike on the southern suburbs of Beirut in September.

Qaani’s absence from public view sparked controversy about his fate after two senior Iranian officials confirmed to Reuters earlier this month that the Quds Force Commander, who had traveled to Lebanon after Nasrallah’s death, had not been heard from since Israel intensified its bombardment of the southern suburbs of Beirut last week.

Last Wednesday, the semi-official Tasnim News Agency quoted the Advisor to the Commander of IRGC, Brig. Gen. Ebrahim Jabbari, as saying, "Commander Qaani is in perfect health and will receive the Fath medal from the Supreme Leader (Ali Khamenei) in the coming days."