What awaits the Quds Force in the region after the assassinations of the southern suburb of Beirut? | policy
Al Jazeera Net correspondents
9/29/2024–|Last updated: 9/29/202401:10 PM (Mecca time)
Tehran- The assassination of Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah in the Israeli raids that struck, the day before yesterday, Friday, the southern suburb of Beirut, was overshadowed by the news coming from the Lebanese capital about the assassination of Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan, deputy commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and responsible for the Lebanon file in the Quds Force, as a result of the same raids.
After the Persian-language media confirmed, yesterday, Saturday, “the martyrdom of Nilforoushan,” the Iranian press dealt with the news very timidly, even though he took over the Syria and Lebanon file in the Legion following the killing of Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi following the Israeli attack on the Tehran consulate building in Damascus in April. the past.
While Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian asserted that “the loss of the prominent figures of the resistance will strengthen its good tree more than ever before,” his Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi – from New York – called for an emergency Islamic summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to be held, while Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei declared mourning 5 Days of “commemoration of the martyrdom of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.”
Iranian presence
In light of the Israeli assassinations of Iranian military advisors to Hezbollah and in Syria, some Iranian circles wondered about the repercussions of their repetition on the confrontation with Israel and the impact of this on the performance of the Quds Force in the region.
Meanwhile, the former Iranian ambassador to Libya, Jaafar Qanad Bashi, reads these assassinations as “fire from the Zionist enemy in the context of Tehran’s practical presence alongside the Islamic resistance factions in confronting the occupying entity.”
Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Qanad Bashi attributes the presence of Iranian advisors to the resistance factions and allied countries to helping them confront challenges and strengthen their military and security capabilities away from Western influence, which he said “targets Islamic parties and drains their energies under the pretext of the existence of external threats.”
He considered that “the martyrdom of the Iranian advisors to Tehran's allies is a source of pride for the Islamic Republic, and that these martyrs were only strengthened by the Zionist threats in their determination and steadfastness in supporting the Front of Truth,” adding that his country considers the mixing of the blood of its leaders and military forces with the blood of the mujahideen in the various resistance factions to be a badge of pride for it.
In his opinion, the presence of Iranian military advisors with Tehran’s allies, led by Hezbollah, will be strengthened following the assassination of Nilforoushan. This is because “the barbaric Israeli assassinations and attacks have undermined the capabilities of the Islamic resistance in Lebanon, which makes it necessary for Iran to work to compensate for the losses recently befell the party and restore its structure.”
The same spokesman added that strengthening military cooperation between Tehran and the resistance factions – led by Hezbollah – is a “defensive and deterrent necessity” as they constitute the front line in the face of Iran's external threats, stressing that the circles of the resistance axis share his country's concerns, goals and agenda regarding the Palestinian issue.
Rules of engagement
For his part, analyst at the Middle East Center for Strategic Studies, Abbas Aslani, is examining the future of the Quds Force in the region, in the context of the recent change in the rules of engagement between Israel and the axis of resistance, stressing that destabilizing the balance of deterrence following the targeting of the southern suburb last week will move the conflict between the two sides to an advanced stage.
In Aslani’s opinion, apart from the killing of the Iranian military leader alongside Nasrallah, Tehran will be forced to respond in order to restore its deterrence capabilities in the region after Israel crossed its red lines. He expected the axis of resistance to carry out a series of operations that would restore its face and send practical messages warning the “enemy.” He wants to continue his adventures.
Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, the Iranian researcher believes that his country was not surprised by Israel committing a wave of assassinations in Lebanon after resorting to implementing this policy several times previously against the axis of resistance.
He stressed that the assassinations did not weaken the resistance factions, but rather strengthened them. Accordingly, the assassination of Brigadier General Nilforoushan will increase the Quds Force’s determination to support the resistance factions that take “the task of confronting the Israeli enemy upon themselves.”
Legal assignment
Researcher Aslani refers to the statement of the Supreme Leader following the announcement of the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, stressing that he considered helping Hezbollah and the Lebanese people “a religious duty for all Muslims,” and therefore Iranian institutions will be the first to abide by this ruling issued by the highest religious authority in the country.
He believed that the Iranian leader’s expression regarding “Hezbollah’s strong structure” shows Tehran’s determination to strengthen the party’s system and qualify it to contribute to determining the fate of the region, explaining that the Quds Force is concerned with this mission in the future, and that he does not envision a change in his country’s regional policies other than strengthening support for the resistance factions.
For his part, Rahman Ghahramanpour, professor of international relations at the University of Tehran, believes that it is not possible to be certain at the present time about the nature and shape of the Middle East during the next stage due to the uncertainty of what surprises will lead to in the future.
In a series of tweets on the
He added that Tel Aviv will not be able to guarantee its security in the region through its current policies, and that the game of its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “will harm the region and its entity.”