In the past week, articles have pointed to an alleged trend of Qaani escaping incidents that have killed others.
One said the general had “spent the past two years accumulating a reputation for his extraordinary ability to walk away unscathed while everyone around him dies”.
One of the incidents involved the wholesale targeting of IRGC top brass in Israel’s 12-day war against Iran in June, when he was initially thought to have been killed, but then emerged at a public event wearing civilian clothes and a baseball cap. This echoed a similar sequence of events in October 2024.
Heightening the gossip were reports that Israel had published a list of Iranian and Iran-linked officials it wanted to eliminate in the current round of fighting.
Over the weekend that marked the start of the war, that list was declared “complete”, but Qaani’s name was not included.
A Persian-language X account, which is believed to be run by Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, took the step of denying that Qaani was one of its spies last year.
Since the strike that killed Khamenei nine days ago, numerous social media accounts of dubious provenance have alleged that Qaani was a long-term Israeli asset, some of which have superimposed his head on an IDF uniform.
There are also reports that Qaani is being interrogated by the IRGC’s internal security service.
In a war that figures in the US, such as Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, seem determined to portray as an action movie, this story bears the genuine hallmarks of an espionage thriller.
One Israeli source with a background in intelligence said: “Ultimately, no one knows. Perhaps the truth is that he is what he claims to be, loyal to the Iranian regime, and all this chatter is part of an operation to undermine him and the work he does attacking Israel.”
The speculation takes place against the backdrop of what appears to be a stunning Israeli penetration of Iran’s security state.
Some indication has emerged of how they pulled off the assassination of Khamenei, including by hacking the feed from Tehran’s traffic cameras.
Mossad was also said to be operating on the ground during the war last June to help take out anti-aircraft defences.
It is not known whether any Israeli agents have been inside Iran in the build-up to the current conflict.
However, former operatives have previously said that Mossad is now able to extract a large amount of data from Iran digitally, including by persuading Iranians to pass it on to them, unaware that they are dealing with Israeli intelligence.
Qaani is reportedly viewed as a less visionary and transformational figure than Soleimani within IRGC circles.
However, the Iran-Iraq war veteran was seen as loyal to the regime by bringing decades of experience to his role in exporting terror to the region.
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