Quds Force
Iranian intelligence elements also targeted former members of the Israeli defense establishment, turning to them as they pretended to be academics, journalists, businesspeople and philanthropists.
“The price of stopping Iran now is lower than it will be in a year,” says Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz.
“We have lived with Islamists in Iran and know their psychology, their politics and the way they operate. Appeasing them will haunt you, and they consider these moves as temporary and a sign of weakness,” says George Haroonian, a Los Angeles-based Iranian Jewish activist.
It emphasizes that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its Quds Force are responsible for training and funding Islamic terrorist organizations, including Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Mohammad Pakpour, a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, insists that Iran “should avenge him.”
“I believe [it] to be a terrorist organization and do not support them being delisted,“ said Army Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The legendary Iranian commander might be gone, but Iran is forging ahead regardless.
Reports name Ali Asaf, a Lebanese national who in the past has been identified as a Hezbollah operative, as a senior Quds Force commander operating on Syrian territory.
Reports say Syrian President Bashar Assad demanded the exit of Quds Force commander Jawad Ghafari over breaches of sovereignty.
African security forces arrest five suspects based on intel from “Western agencies” • They were recruited by Quds Force, identifying Israeli targets in Tanzania, Ghana and Senegal when captured.
The July drone strike on the “Mercer Street” oil tanker, for example, was carried out directly by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; IRGC Quds Force Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani would have insisted on a proxy strike instead.
IRGC Brig. Gen. Muhammad Hussein-Zada Hejazi was previously named by Israel as the head of Iran’s precision-guided missile project in Lebanon.
