Iran's chief of arms deals abroad has remained silent since Beirut attacks: Iranian officials

The commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' (IRGC) foreign military and intelligence corps, who traveled to Lebanon last month after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike, has not been heard from since last week's attacks on Beirut heard more, Iranian officials say.

Reuters reported that two senior Iranian security officials confirmed that Iran's Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani had not been heard from since late last week.

An official told Qaani news agency he was in the southern suburbs of Beirut during a rocket attack that reportedly hit senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, although he did not meet with the Hezbollah leader.

A Hezbollah official said Israel was not allowing them to search for Safieddine after the bombing in Beirut's southern suburbs on Thursday. The group also said it would not reveal Safieddine's fate until the search for him was complete.

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IRGC chief Esmail Qaani has not been heard from since Israel launched an attack on Hezbollah in Beirut last week. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Safieddine was reportedly a likely successor to Nasrallah, who died when Israel launched an attack on Dahiyeh on September 27.

The Iranian official told the Associated Press that Iran and Hezbollah were unable to contact Qaani after the U.S. assassinated his predecessor, Qassem Soleimani, in a drone strike in 2020.

The second Iranian official told the AP that Qaani traveled to Lebanon after Nasrallah's killing, adding that authorities have not been able to contact him since the attack on Safieddine.

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Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike that hit the southern suburbs of Beirut on October 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a nonpartisan research institute focused on foreign policy and national security, told Fox News Digital that the higher an official's position, the harder it is to hide.

“Whatever the verdict on Qaani’s whereabouts, the fact that the regime was unable to produce him to quell rumors means he is either injured or in hiding,” Taleblu said. “Israel is exploiting its advantage in Lebanon against the commanders of the Iranian threat network, leading to command and control problems and chaos that gives rise to rumors like these.”

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An IDF profile photo shows Hezbollah terror chief Hassan Nasrallah, who the IDF confirmed was killed in an attack. (IDF Spokesperson Unit)

Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani was asked about reports that Qaani may have been killed in the Israeli airstrike and said the results of the strikes were still being assessed.

Shoshani said the attack late last week targeted Hezbollah's intelligence headquarters in Beirut.

Qaani's Quds Force is responsible for monitoring dealings with Tehran and allied militias such as Hezbollah across the Middle East.

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IRGC brigade commander. General Abbas Nilforoushan was killed along with Nasrallah on September 27 when Israeli bombs hit his bunker.

Reuters contributed to this report.