The report further states that two Quds Force commanders are overseeing the maritime weapons smuggling. Hezbollah's control over the Port of Beirut facilitates the reception of these arms shipments.

In this context, it was also reported that senior Hezbollah official Wafiq Safa runs a network of collaborators at the Port of Beirut who assist him in the smuggling efforts.

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Putting an end to weeks of speculation about his fate, Esmail Ghaani, the commander of Iran's elite Quds Force, made a public appearance at Tehran's Mehrabad Airport early Tuesday. His presence dispels rumors of his death or injury that had circulated following an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs in late September.

In the pre-dawn hours of Tuesday, Esmail Ghaani, commander of Iran's Quds Force, was spotted at Tehran's Mehrabad Airport. He was there to receive the body of Abbas Nilforoushan, a high-ranking official of the organization in Lebanon, who was killed alongside Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut.

An Israeli strike targeted the southern Beirut neighborhood of Dahieh in late September, reportedly aimed at Hashem Safieddine, the designated successor to Hezbollah's secretary-general. Israeli intelligence suggests that Nasrallah's intended heir was eliminated in the operation.

In the days following the strike, unverified reports emerged suggesting Ghaani had been killed or wounded. Iranian sources later confirmed to Reuters that Ghaani had been in Beirut in the period leading up to the aerial bombardment of the underground bunker. Subsequently, Revolutionary Guards spokespersons asserted that he was unharmed.

More recently, reports from Sky News and the Middle East Eye website alleged that Ghaani was under investigation by the Revolutionary Guards. According to Sky News sources, Ghaani was being questioned about a suspected intelligence leak and had reportedly been hospitalized after suffering a heart attack. Iranian officials once again refuted these claims.

A correspondent for the Lebanese channel Al-Mayadeen, reporting from Iran, stated that Tehran had deliberately released live footage of Ghaani to counter what it called "completely false narratives" about him circulated by certain media outlets. The public appearance of Ghaani at Mehrabad Airport seems to be a calculated move by Iranian authorities to quash rumors and demonstrate the Quds Force commander's continued active role in the country's military leadership.

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The Arabic branch of Sky News reported today (Thursday) that Ismail Ghaani, the commander of the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards, is suspected of having communicated with Israel.

According to the report, Ghaani was interrogated regarding an intelligence breach and suffered a heart attack during the investigation, after which he was taken to a hospital. Sky News also reported that Ghaani's chief of staff is under suspicion of communicating with Israel. There is no confirmation of the report from any other source.

In recent days, it was reported that Ghaani was supposed to receive an honorary award from Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, following statements from Revolutionary Guards spokesperson asserting that he was in good health. It was previously claimed that Ghaani had been in Beirut two days before the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah in late September.

According to reports last week, Ghaani had not been in contact with the Iranian regime for several days following the attack in Dahiya that targeted senior Hezbollah official Hisham Safi al-Din, who had been designated to succeed Nasrallah.

The New York Times reported that Ghaani had visited Hezbollah's headquarters in Beirut prior to the attack. Earlier this week, Ghaani's deputy, Ariaj Masjedi, addressed the reports, stating that the commander is in good condition and carrying out his duties. "Many are asking where Ghaani is. He is healthy and active," Masjedi said this past Sunday.

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Thousands of mourners poured into the streets of Tehran on Tuesday to pay their respects to a senior Revolutionary Guard member fatally shot by two gunmen on a motorcycle earlier this week, punching the air with their fists and chanting "Death to Israel."

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The killing on Sunday of Col. Hassan Sayyad Khodaei bore the hallmarks of previous deadly shooting attacks in Iran blamed on Israel, such as those targeting the country's nuclear scientists.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack. Iranian officials have blamed "global arrogance," which is code for the United States and Israel, for Khodaei's killing.

The funeral procession snaked through the main Tehran cemetery as mourners shouted anti-US and anti-Israel slogans. A prominent poster hailed Khodaei as a martyr along with Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the top Iranian general killed in a US drone strike in 2020 in Iraq, and featured tattered Israeli, American and British flags.

"Iran is a victim of terrorism," the banner declared, overlaid with the logos of the Mossad and Central Intelligence Agency.

"Iran's response to any threat or action will be harsh. But we will determine when and how it will be and in what circumstances. We will definitely take revenge on our enemies," Revolutionary Guards commander Hossein Salami told reporters.

Salami as well as Gen. Esmail Ghaani, leader of Iran's expeditionary Quds Force, attended the funeral.

Ghaani also offered condolences at Khodaei's home on Monday night. Iran's nuclear negotiator visited the crime scene, underscoring the government's shock. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi vowed revenge. A street in Tehran has already been named after the colonel.

The 50-year-old Khodaei remains a shadowy figure, and Iran has yet to offer biographic detail beyond saying that he was a member of the elite Quds Force that oversees operations abroad through Iran's allied militias across the Middle East. The Guard has described him as "defender of the shrine" – a reference to Iranians who support militias fighting the extremist Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.

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The US decision to remove Iran's Revolutionary Guards from its foreign terrorist organization blacklist would not only be a distortion of truth and adoption of a double standard distinguishing between terrorism and terrorism but worse yet: an American show of surrender to Iran and a reward to the main perpetrator of terrorism of its time, the one that sows chaos in the Middle East and the entire world, from Syria and Lebanon to Argentina.

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And yes, it will also be a blow and put sticks in the wheels of Israel and America's other allies in the region, who deal with destructive terrorist plots daily, courtesy of the Revolutionary Guards.

At the time these lines are written, Washington has not yet made a decision in this regard. The very fact that this discussion is taking place at Iran's demand, raised by the regime moments before the suspension of nuclear talks, is already a form of insult to the United States.

Were it not for steps previously taken by the Biden administration, one could have suspected that the discussion on the matter was a tactical move by Washington designed to provide them with an opportunity to respond negatively and assume an uncompromising stance, to dull down the arrows of criticism pointed at them for surrendering to Tehran's demands.

Unfortunately, however, it is difficult to think of such a possibility seriously, when one recalls the words of Russia's main negotiator in Vienna about Iran's achievements during the talks. Iran got much more than it expected – Mikhail Ulyanov said.

Moreover, removing the Revolutionary Guards from the blacklist does not seem far-fetched when remembering that one of the first decisions the Biden administration made was removing the Houthis from the same listing only two days after they attacked Saudi Arabia and refrains from adding them back onto the list ever since, despite the fact that rebels conducted more attacks, this time against the United Arab Emirates as well.

In 2019, when then-US President Donald Trump decided to designate the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist group, the White House explained that this move recognized a reality in which Iran not only funds terrorism but actively participates in it and uses it to advance its political goals, through this organization.

Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was familiar with the organization's misdeeds also due to his work as director of the CIA, said it best.
"For 40 years, the Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guard Corps has actively engaged in terrorism and created, supported, and directed other terrorist groups. The IRGC masquerades as a legitimate military organization, but none of us should be fooled … From the moment it was founded, the IRGC's mandate was to defend and export the regime's revolution by whatever means possible … The Trump administration is simply recognizing a basic reality. The IRGC will take its rightful place on the same list as terror groups its supports," like Hezbollah, and others.

The Revolutionary Guards was founded in 1979 by order of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as a counterweight to the Iranian military which he did not trust because of the American education its senior commanders had received and due to their closeness to the shah. It is organized and operates as a parallel military.

It has ground forces, aerospace forces, a navy, and a special force called Quds Force, an intelligence arm and a Basij mechanism that is used to maintain internal security and brutally oppress opponents of the regime. The Guards also operates Iran's ballistic missile arsenal.

The Revolutionary Guards serves not only as the main means of ensuring the survival of the ayatollah regime but as the main means to achieving its ambitious vision: to establish Iranian hegemony in the region and to spread the idea of the Islamic Revolution throughout the world.

The Quds Force is the main Iranian group that manages the military forces and the Shiite militia outside the country. Its work extends to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Gulf States, the Far East, Africa, South America and reaches as far as the Gaza Strip.

The US-led assassination of Quds Force chief Qassem Soleimani gave the world the opportunity to understand the scope of the organization's activities and high regard in Iran.

It has a special status in the Iranian regime that comes from the combination of its military, economic and political power and a special closeness to the leader. Had Iran developed a nuclear weapon, it would most likely be kept and operated by the Quds Force.

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Adding an organization to the terrorist listing is not just a symbolic move, it is an essential means to denounce its legitimacy, limit contacts with it and impose heavy economic sanctions on it.

As such, removing the Revolutionary Guards from the list will pave the way for its economic growth, which it will use for military and political growth. And all of this will happen, together with the gain that Iran will get with the release of billions of dollars, following the signing of the nuclear agreement.

And what is Iran required to do in return? – Commit to de-escalation! A commitment that even with regard to its content and characteristics the Iranians are still bargaining over. There is no need to delve deeper into the validity of such a promise.

To understand how much it is worth, taking a brief look at the symbol of the Revolutionary Guards and the Koran verse chosen as its motto will suffice: "Prepare against them whatever you are able of power."

How is this seen within the context of the US? – It is very interesting to read this within the context of the tweet of Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, who "cynically awaits" such an American decision. Individuals like him are familiar with the winds in domestic politics in Washington and understand that such a decision could cause an explosion on both sides of the political map.

In any event, anyone who believes that Iranians will achieve their nuclear aspirations can also believe that "relief and rescue will arise for the Jews from elsewhere" (Book of Esther, 4:14).

Brig. Gen. (Res.) Professor Jacob Nagel is a former national security adviser to the prime minister and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Meir Ben-Shabbat, a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, served as Israel's national security adviser and head of the National Security Council between 2017 and 2021.

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is fickle and unpredictable, a high-ranking security official recently warned Israel's political leadership. The official recommended that Israel be cautious in the face of Turkey's gestures, which he said are designed to use Israel to put Erdogan back in a position to influence the Biden administration. Israel should respect him, but be wary, the official concluded.

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The warning didn't come out of the clear blue sky. The Israeli security establishment is warning the political echelon not to get overexcited and rush into normalization with Turkey.

While the possibility of a meeting in Istanbul between Erdogan and President Isaac Herzog – which Erdogan mentioned only a few days ago – is sparking hope in the Foreign Ministry, security experts are trying to calm everyone down. The defense and security apparatus is keeping tabs on the latest romance with Turkey – which used to be Israel's strategic, military, and intelligence partner but which in the past decade has opened its arms to Hamas and other branches of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Middle East. Officials are also worried that a number of understandings and agreements between Israel and allies such as Egypt, Greece, and Cyprus could be affected if Jerusalem moves toward Ankara.

Information making its way to the defense and security establishment these past few months is worrying. While Erdogan is laying the groundwork and preparing Turkish public opinion for a change to relations with Israel, and senior Israeli officials are in contact with head of Turkey's National Intelligence Organization Hakan Fidan, a Hamas command continues to operate in Turkey and execute terrorist attacks and attempted attacks in Israel, Judea, and Samaria.

Israel is looking into a recent report that Turkey has deported a number of Hamas operatives, but in general, Hamas in Turkey continues to operate its Istanbul headquarters, recruiting Arab Israelis and Palestinian Arabs for intelligence work and to carry out terrorist attacks. Senior Hamas member Salah al-Arouri, whom Turkey supposedly deported at Israel's request, continues to handle his people there and even organize training and target practice in Turkey.

The possibility that Turkey and Israel could resume cooperation on intelligence is also causing some misgivings. Israel used to be worried that Turkey handed Israeli information over to Iran. Foreign media reports claimed that Turkey has exposed the identities of local Iranian agents who met with their Mossad handlers, and former Prime Minister Ehud Barak used to say that Fidan was "pro-Iran."

The fact that a few leaders of Turkey's defense establishment today are identified as Muslim Brotherhood members, along with Turkey's ties with Iran, does nothing to boost the low level of trust between Israel and Turkey.

From Iran to Turkey to the West Bank

The distant history is well-known. The more recent history – less so. Only a month and a half ago the Shin Bet security agency arrested four members of a Hamas cell in the village of Zurif near Hebron. The cell had been directed from Turkey by Abd Rahman Raminat, an associate of Arouri who was released in the prisoner exchange deal for captive soldier Gilad Schalit.

The Hamas network in Judea and Samaria that the Shin Bet exposed a month prior to those arrests, which was plotting major terrorist attacks, including shootings, abductions, and suicide bombings, was also being handled from Turkey by Arouri and Zakria Najib, an east Jerusalem native who was one of the men who kidnapped IDF soldier Nachshon Wachsman and who was also released in the Schalit deal.

According to indictments filed against three east Jerusalem residents, Najib had formerly tried to enlist Adham Musselmani, a resident of the Shuefat refugee camp, to kill one of three possible targets: former Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, former Israel Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh, or former MK Yehuda Glick. He even reportedly offered Musselmani money and training in Turkey.

Now Najib is once again in the heart of things, and once again running a terrorist infrastructure, which was exposed at the end of 2021 and included 50 Hamas members from different parts of the West Bank. Israel, in a gesture of thanks to Turkey for releasing Natali and Mordi Oknin, postponed the announcement about the network.

The Shin Bet statement about the West Bank network reported that agents had recovered weapons, explosives belts, and guns, as well as considerable sums of money sent to the operatives. The message left out the name of the country from which the money originated – Turkey.

Turkey has long since become a base from which Hamas handles it monetary operations and funds terrorist plots in Judea and Samaria. On Sept. 10, 2019, the US Commerce Department announced it would be applying sanctions to 15 terrorist operatives and money changers that help terrorist organizations, and published a list that included operatives and companies in Turkey that helped transfer money to Hamas.

The Americans also reported that the main source of the money sent to Hamas from Turkey (and sometimes through Lebanon) is Iran, and that Iran's Quds Force is responsible for directing the funds.

The killer visited Turkey

The American report mentioned the name Zaher Jabarin, a high-ranking Hamas official in Turkey, as having sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to Judea and Samaria to fund Hamas terrorist activity.

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Israel suspects that Jabarin, who has been appointed deputy leader of Hamas in the West Bank, is still involved in similar activity from Turkey and that he was involved in a recently-exposed system of money transfers in the West Bank. Jabarin is responsible for building up Hamas' military capabilities from the organization's headquarters in Istanbul.

The headquarters also oversees the development of Hamas' maritime and rocket capabilities, as well as its cyberwarfare, development of new weapons, and the transfer of Iranian money. It also has a branch in Lebanon, and Israel has demanded that Turkey put a stop to all these activities.

An interesting question that has yet to be answered, at least publicly, is whether the killer of Eliyahu David Kay in the Old City of Jerusalem some two months ago was trained and handled from Turkey. Fai Abu Shkhaydam, a prominent opponent of Jews being allowed to visit the Temple Mount, who has connections to senior members of the Jordanian Waqf on the Temple Mount, paid a number of visits to Turkey in recent years, meeting with Hamas operatives there. After he killed Kay, Shkhaydam and his family were "congratulated" by Hamas leader abroad Ismail Haniyeh and Arouri, who oversees the direction of terrorist attacks in the West Bank from Turkey, Lebanon, Qatar, or wherever else he happens to be.

As if that weren't enough, a couple of weeks ago a senior Waqf official, Fadi Alian, was arrested. The indictment filed against him in the Jerusalem District Court says that Alian had purchased a homemade Carlo machine gun near Nablus and given them to a family member, who used it to carry out three shooting attacks on police operating in east Jerusalem. Alian, like Shkhaydam, was part of attempts to attack Jews visiting the Temple Mount.

There is another piece of information that points to the key role Turkey plays in Hamas' terrorist operations. About six weeks ago, Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked signed an order preventing 11 residents of east Jerusalem known to be high-ranking members of Hamas and Al-Shabab al-Aqsa from leaving the country. Shaked was presented with hard intelligence about each one, showing that they were poised to receive instructions from Turkey about when and where to commit terrorist actions.

Did Shkhaydam receive similar guidance? There is no clear answer, but Shaked signed the orders three weeks after Kay's murder.

According to the information presented to Shaked, the 11 east Jerusalem residents not allowed to leave the country include Sufian Fahri Abdu from Jabal Mukabar. Some 20 years ago, he plotted to poison diners at a restaurant in central Jerusalem. In total, he has spent 16 years in prison.

The group also reportedly includes Nasser Issa Jalal Hadmi, who wasn't allowed to leave the country even when Arye Deri was serving as interior minister. Hadmi and four others were barred from traveling for allegedly transferring money from foreign countries to Hamas in Israel; supporting the Murabitat project on the Temple Mount to keep Jewish visitors away through steady harassment; and promoting dawa activity to set up community and educational institutions that operate according to the ideology of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Another detainee on Shaked's list is Rami Zakaria Ibrahim Barakeh from Sur Baher, who has served time in prison for Hamas activity. The Shin Bet says Barakeh was a high-ranking member of Hamas in east Jerusalem and active in project Hamas co-operated on the Temple Mount with the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement, which like the Murabitat was designed to prevent visits by Jews.

Approximately a year and a half ago, Israel handed Turkey intelligence and proof, including a list of names, that appeared to show that Hamas operatives were handling terrorism against Israel from the organization's offices in Istanbul. For years, Israel has been demanding that Turkey deport dozens of Hamas operatives, some of whom have even adopted Turkish citizenship, noting that the ongoing Hamas activity in Turkey goes against understandings between Turkey, Israel, and the US, particularly understandings reached in the reconciliation agreement that supposedly ended the Turkish-Israel crisis that followed the Marmara incident of 2010. Turkey has consistently denied that Hamas is organizing any terrorist activity from inside its borders and claims that the organization's work in Turkey is strictly "political," and thereby does not violate the understandings.

As Turkey continues to woo Israel, an unusual message the Shin Bet put out a few years ago, just after Israel deported Turkish lawyer Cemil Tekeli, who was recruited by Zaher Jabarin, is still relevant. At the time, the Shin Bet said that "Turkey is contributing to Hamas' military growth" and that "Hamas' extensive military and financial activity in Turkey continues without any hindrance, with the Turkish regime ignoring it and sometimes even encouraging it, and help from Turkish civilians, some of whom have ties to the regime."

Israel security and defense establishment wants to remind the government of these warnings after moths in which Turkey tries to cozy up to Israel while attempted terrorist attacks and terrorist plots Hamas directs from Turkey are continually thwarted.

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Two months ago, on Nov. 7, 2021, one of the Shiite militias in Iraq deployed a suicide drone toward the home of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. The drone exploded, wounding a few security guards, but al-Kadhimi himself lived.

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Immediately after the incident, a delegation of high-ranking Iranian officials led by commander of the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, Maj. Gen. Esmail Ghaani landed in Baghdad. They wanted to calm things down, but also investigate the incident. The militia that fired the drone operates under Iran's auspices and is funded by Iran, but in this case had acted on its own, with no explicit instructions – even going against Iranian policy.

In the West, people thought Iran was playing dumb and had actually ordered the drone launch despite the denials. After some time, it turned out that Iran was just as surprised by the incident as the Iraqi government was. Even Washington – which cannot be accused of any fondness for the IRGC or the Shiite militias in Iraq – made it clear that Iran wasn't behind the drone attack. High-ranking officials in Israel confirmed that last week.

Up until two years ago, an independent act like this one by the militias in Iraq would have been impossible. The militias were under the thumb of the Quds Force, or more accurately, the late Quds Force commander Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, who was in charge of exporting the ayatollah revolution. Soleimani's death led to a major change in the balance of power in Iran, which even now is affecting the entire region. The case of the Iraqi-based militias, it carries more weight. The US missile that killed Soleimani also took out Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was deputy commander of the Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella group that unites dozens of the mainly Shiite militias in Iraq that Iran supports. Al-Muhandis was Soleimani's confidante and was responsible for carrying out his plans in Iraq. Now that he is gone, the Quds Force is less able to enforce discipline on the various groups.

Soleimani was the most important military official in Iran. His rank belied his seniority – officially, he was a major general, one of many in the IRGC, but practically speaking, he was far above them. Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, saw Soleimani as a son.

'Nasrallah barely knew'

Soleimani was one of the most notable figures of the Islamic Revolution and many stories were told of his heroism. It is said that during the Iran-Iraq War, he crossed the front line and survived. Soleimani encouraged these myths, especially in his final years, after emerging from the shadows. He began allowing his picture to be taken and granting interviews, becoming a celebrity. It's possible that this prompted him to become careless, which ultimately cost him his life.

Experts think that if he hadn't been killed, he would have gone into politics and made his mark.

"Khamenei believed in Soleimani and trusted him," says Meir Javdenfar, an expert on Iran and a senior researcher at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy, and Strategy at Reichman University.

"Under [former Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad, who betrayed the supreme leader after he was elected president, Soleimani was always loyal to him."

Soleimani had carte blanche from Khamenei. Former head of the research division in the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate Brig. Gen. (res.) Dror Shalom says that often, Soleimani would carry out an action and tell Khamenei about it only after the fact.

"Everyone understood that he was acting on behalf of the leader and speaking in his name. He knew how to take Khamenei's strategy and turn it into an operation. Just like Mohsen Fakhrizadeh [who was killed in 2020] in the field of nuclear research. They were two exceptional, key figures, and it's not a coincidence that they're no longer alive," Shalom says.

When Soleimani first took command of the Quds Force at the end of the 1990s, it was a relatively small organization that mainly concerned itself with carrying out terrorist attacks all over the world. The first major operation Soleimani oversaw was in Afghanistan. Later, the Quds Force became active in Iraq and in Lebanon, and after the Arab Spring of 2011, in Syria. He had branches in all these countries. In Lebanon, his deputy was Imad Mughniyeh, in Syria, it was Brig. Gen. Mohammed Suleiman. Mughniyeh, the admired Hezbollah leader, was killed in Damascus in 2008 in an action attributed to the Mossad and the Americans. Suleiman was killed approximately six months later by a sniper while at home in the Syrian city Tartus, an action also attributed to Israel.

The targeted killings of both these commanders forced Soleimani to tighten his connections with Syrian President Bashar Assad and Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah. He became a kind of mentor to Assad – later saving his life and keeping him in power by lending all the force of the IRGC and its proxy Hezbollah to Assad's war against the Syrian opposition forces until the latter were defeated (due in part to aid from Russia, and bolstered by the US-led coalition forces' war against the Islamic State.)

Soleimani's relationship with Nasrallah was more complicated, but no less close.

"Nasrallah was more cautious than he was, because he remembered his experience with Israel in 2006. He didn't always like what Soleimani was doing, for fear he would complicate things for Lebanon, but he didn't stop him," a high-ranking Israeli security official notes.

Soleimani led the efforts to outfit Hezbollah with rockets and precision missiles that could be aimed to within 10 meters (33 feet) of any point in Israel. This project was his exclusive initiative – "Nasrallah barely knew about it, and wasn't really interested," the official adds. "Soleimani was behind it and pushing for it."

The Quds Forces's efforts to shore up Hezbollah have been one of its two main projects in recent years and is a major target of airstrikes attributed to Israel in Syria. The second campaign Soleimani spearheaded was to secure an Iranian presence in Syria.

"In 2016 we pointed out that Soleimani would change his strategy from saving Assad to entrenching [Iran] in Syria," Shalom says. "We thought he would identify an opportunity to turn Syria into a platform of resistance against Israel. We spotted that vision even before Soleimani fully conceived it, and we prepared for it. When he came up with it, we were already deep into the 'between-wars' campaign and were able to thwart it," Shalom explains.

Hajizadeh is aiming for the stars

Soleimani's idea was simple. Because he didn't want to involve Hezbollah and Lebanon in a war, but still wanted to launch regular attacks against Israel, he planned to set up permanent air, ground forces, and naval bases in Syria and populate them with thousands of Shiite fighters he would train, fund, and equip, who would then make life tough for Israel.

Israel's determination torpedoed the plan. Hundreds of actions, large and small, were launched to keep Iran from positioning itself to attack. Military facilities were targeted before they were built, weapons and supply convoys were bombs, and psychological ops were launched. Nevertheless, Soleimani continued to pursue his vision. A few times, he tried to respond with attacks on Israel (such as firing drones armed with rockets, mostly toward the Golan Heights), but without success. The low-quality tactical capabilities of the pro-Iranian forces in Syria combined with Israel's intelligence and operational superiority made it possible to thwart all the attempted attacks.

"Soleimani wanted to surround us with a crescent of terrorism," the Israeli official says. "With some of his plans, he failed, but his general idea didn't collapse. The opposite." This refers mainly to the process that began near the end of Soleimani's life, which has gathered speed since he was killed: flooding the region with precision strike capabilities, mostly UAVs armed with various weapons systems, that allow Iran to use its proxies to attack, avoiding responsibility and risk.

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Capabilities like these, that have a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles) have already been delivered to the Houthis in Yemen and some of the militias in Iraq, and we can assume that similar systems are already in Lebanon and Syria, as well. Iran, of course, also has them in its own territory, and has used them to attack the Saudis' Aramco oil facility in September 2019, a massive strike that caused enormous damage. Iran denied any connection to the incident, but there is solid intelligence that the missiles were fired from Iran itself.

The man responsible for the Aramco strike was Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC's Aerospace Force. Hajizadeh was one of the main beneficiaries from Soleimani's death. His own status has increased dramatically in the last two years, and he is not involved in areas that used to be exclusively handled by the Quds Force. IRGC Commander Hossein Salami has also gained considerable power even since Soleimani – who was senior – has been out of the picture.

"Soleimani wouldn't have allowed this to happen," the Israeli defense official notes. "He wouldn't have let the guy eat away at the Quds Force's authorities. He was very zealous about making sure that what took place outside Iran's borders was his responsibility and under his orders. That's no longer the case, and it's not certain that it's good for us. The new players have tools and resources, as well as a lot of motivation. They could cause us some real headaches."

Soleimani's successor, Ghaani, is very different. "He's bland, uncharismatic, a kind of office functionary," Shalom says. "At first, there were a lot of people on the Shiite axis who doubted his ability to do the job, and he's still having a hard time delivering the goods."

Proof of this can be seen in the recent dismissal of commander of the Quds Force in Syria, Joad Rafari, after his grandiose plans failed to bear fruit, in part because of Israeli preemptive actions.

"Ghaani is not Soleimani, but it would be a mistake to compare him to who Soleimani was in the last 10 years of his life," explains Dr. Raz Tzimmt, an expert on Iran from the Institute for National Security Studies. "He should be compared to what the Quds Force was before that: a small, secret force. We tend to attribute too much of the Quds Force's difficulties to targeted killings, but the truth is that's not the only factor. The wars in Syria and Iraq are over and these countries are undergoing processes of reorder, and in Iraq and Lebanon there's criticism of the Iranians over the Quds Force's activities, which are making things complicated for them."

Still, Tzimmt says, Ghaani is facing a number of difficulties that stem from the large shoes he was forced to fill.

"Soleimani wasn't just a notable military strategist, but also a super politician," he says. "Ghaani has much less influence in the region, over Hezbollah and Nasrallah, for example, than his predecessor did. But we shouldn't get our hopes up here, either – Nasrallah still sees Khamenei and Iran as the source of his religious authority, and that's not likely to change. It has more influence on the other militias, like the ones in Iraq, because they're more strongly rooted in personal loyalty to Soleimani, who assembled and led them."

Under Soleimani, the Quds Force underwent two major changes. It transformed from a small-scale, secret unit to an enormous organization operating in several countries. At its peak, some say, the Quds Force paid salaries to 150,000 soldiers. The second change was in its influence – Soleimani made the Quds Force into the dominant factor in the IRGC and outside its ranks. His exceptional military abilities – both in terms of strategic vision and getting down to practical brass tacks – combined with his personal charisma and the vast influence he had as part of the supreme leader's inner circle channeled a great deal of power into the organization he led.

According to the Israeli official, "There aren't a lot of people who can make changes like that, to take a relatively small organization and make it into a super-operator with systems in several countries at once. Soleimani did it in Iraq, Syria, and in Yemen, all while pushing to strengthen Hezbollah."

Ghaani is continuing to carry out the same vision. The big wars are over, but Iran keeps on keeping on. Anyone who thought it would draw back, because of Israeli airstrikes, US sanctions, or certain restrictions from Russia, will turn out to have been mistaken. And that is exactly Israel's claim – that the activity in Syria is just part of a much broader strategic campaign to reduce Iran's regional influence and stop it from growing stronger.

"Iran is a deep strategic challenge, far beyond its nuclear program," Shalom says. "Dealing with it is [for Israel] like the west dealing with the Soviet Union during the Cold War."

Shalom believes that it was critical to take out Soleimani, because he was the rare kind of leader for whom it is hard to find a replacement. He thinks that Iran's rather ineffectual reaction to his death had to do with the fact that the US was behind the strike. If Israel had been responsible, Iran would have responded much more harshly.

But in the past two years, American deterrence has been worn down, mostly because former President Donald Trump has been replaced by Joe Biden, who is leading a policy line that leans much more toward appeasement. The result is clear – it can be seen in the Iranians' audacity in the Vienna nuclear talks and in attacks on Iraqi bases hosting American forces. Even Israel could pay for America losing its deterrence. This past year, Iran has waged a maritime campaign against civilian vessels owned by Israelis as a counterbalance to strikes on oil tankers and military ships under Iranian control that were attributed to the Israeli Navy. It's doubtful we've seen the last move by Iran; senior defense officials said last week that a recent series of airstrikes – including two major ones on the Latakia port in Syria – attributed to Israel will likely not go unanswered by Iran.

If Soleimani were still alive, he would certainly push for heavy retaliation, but that's probably what Ghaani will do, as well. With Soleimani or without him, Iran goes on, on all fronts, with all its might. It's revolutionary spirit and imperialist aspirations ensure that the front against Iran and its proxies will stay hot.   

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Iran and its elite Quds Force appear to be behind a recent attempted killing of an Israeli in Colombia, despite original reports that the incident had been plotted by Hezbollah, Israel Hayom has learned.

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Sources familiar with the matter insist that there is a consistent pattern of behavior that centers around cooperation between local criminal organizations and international terrorist entities – at the head of which stands the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force.

The Colombia incident is the latest in a long series of recent attempted killings of Israeli businesspeople in Africa in retaliation for the targeted killing of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh last November.

The sources also said that the attempted killing comprised a violation of sovereignty, and stressed that it was Iran who was sending cells of trained killers to murder Israelis abroad.

"Two months ago we had to deal with a situation where we had to set up an operation to capture and expel two criminals mandated by Hezbollah who intended to commit a criminal act in Colombia," Molano said, in an interview with the local news outlet el Tiempo. According to the report, the plot included a cell that had been following a number of foreigners in Colombia, Americans as well as Israelis.

Colombia is accusing neighboring Venezuela of offering haven to terrorists, who then operate form insides its borders, as Israel Hayom reported in October.

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Recent reports have named a previously unknown senior officer working in Syria on behalf of Iran's elite Quds Force, Kan 11 News reported on Thursday.

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The news, which cited a report by the United States-based Alhurra Arabic-language channel, comes a day after Saudi media outlets said Syrian President Bashar Assad had been involved in ejecting Iranian Quds Force Commander in Syria Jawad Ghafari from the country.

According to Saudi news outlets Al Arabiya and Al Hadath, Assad asked the Iranian regime to withdraw Asaf's predecessor, Ghafari, due to the "overactivity" of the Quds Force in Syria, which Assad considered a breach of sovereignty in multiple sectors.

The newly named officer was identified as Ali Asaf, a Lebanese national who has been identified as a Hezbollah operative and "today works for the Islamic Republican Guards Corps-Quds Force on Syrian soil," Kan stated.

According to Alhurra, Iranian elements have been smuggling weapons into Asaf's possessions so he could set up militias in areas including Aleppo, northern Syria, Tadmor, central Syria and Damascus and arm them with rockets to use in possible future attacks on Israel.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Argentina will continue to track down the terrorists responsible for bombing the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994, prosecutor Sebastian Basso assured this week, after former Quds Force commander Ahmad Vahidi, one of the alleged perpetrators of the attack, was named Iran's next interior minister.

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Vahidi has been wanted by the International Criminal Police Organization – commonly known as Interpol – since 2007 and an extradition order has been issued against him by Argentina.

Vahidi's appointment drew outrage in Argentina, with its foreign ministry describing the move as "an insult to the justice system and the victims."

"We are doing our utmost to bring the perpetrators to justice in Argentina," Basso told Israel Hayom. "But there is not much we can do outside the borders of the state except ask the executive authority to move forward on the matter."

"The case is open, and the extradition orders are in force, and the prosecution is more interested in this person [Vahidi] standing trial in Argentina. We continue to investigate the case. We are working, among other things, to identify all those who were involved in carrying out the attack. We are aware, however, that after 27 years, it is a rather difficult task."

Basso has been in charge of extradition efforts since 2015, after replacing his predecessor Alberto Nisman, who was assassinated in January that year, four days after accusing then-president Cristina Kirchner (now vice president of Argentina) of manipulating the investigation in favor of the Iranians, as well as of terrorism and treason.

"When Nisman submitted documents in 2016 requesting the extradition of the Iranians involved, he made it clear that the regime in Iran has no constitution or democracy. The appointment does not surprise me, but what makes me sad is that we cannot bring Vahidi to Argentina."

The attack on the Jewish community center occurred on July 18, 1994. A suicide bomber drove a vehicle loaded with 275 kilograms of explosives into the building. The attack claimed the lives of 85 people and injured hundreds more. The bombing is Argentina's deadliest terrorist attack to date.

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