Tariq Al-Homayed
Saudi journalist and writer, and former editor-in-chief of Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper
TT

All Members of Iran’s ‘Quds Force’ are Pursued

Despite all the Iranian propaganda about the power of the “Quds Force” and its expansion in the region, the Revolutionary Guard’s branch is now being chased down by Israel and its members are being assassinated inside Tehran.

In football lingo, this means that Israel is now playing with Iran the home game, after Iran’s prolonged playing abroad.

The last of these remarkable operations, and after reports of a US caveat to the Israelis on not targeting Iran’s nuclear scientists, was the assassination of Quds Force’s Col. Sayyad Khudaei.

This operation represents a turning point in the open Israeli war against Iran, by land, air, sea, and even the media, especially after the leaks published by the New York Times that Israel informed US officials of being behind Khudaei’s assassination.

These leaks were met with Israeli anger, which means that some in Washington are opposed to targeting Iran at a time when it appears that the decision to confront Tehran has been made up by Israel and moved to a dangerous stage that may stir a new war.

While it is true that Israel targets Iranian fighters and equipment in Syria, targeting the Quds Force inside Iran means that Israel wants to send a message to Tehran that it will not care about changes in the Russian position in Syria.

It also means that Israel’s infiltration into the Iranian interior is real and reached the point of penetrating the Quds Force itself.

Before, Quds Force arrogance, at its height, saw its slain commander Qassem Soleimani sending a famous message to General David Petraeus, which I published here on August 1, 2011, citing the Guardian.

“General Petraeus, you should know that I, Qassem Suleimani, control the policy for Iran with respect to Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza, and Afghanistan. And indeed, the ambassador in Baghdad is a Quds Force member. The individual who's going to replace him is a Quds Force member,” Soleimani wrote to Petraeus.

Today, the situation has turned around, with Israel targeting the Quds Force in Iran. This means the Revolutionary Guards and its affiliated corps losing face and the prestige of the regime, specifically the Iranian Supreme Leader, being undermined.

Khudaei’s assassination did not happen by chance, which indicates other operations to come.

Certainly, hunting down the Quds Force will affect even the morale of the Iranian militias in the region, and all of this may precipitate a fatal mistake that leads to military confrontations that will have a completely different impact on the whole region.

Therefore, we now have nothing but questions. Is Iran willing to sacrifice Gaza by using Hamas to save face? Or sacrifice Lebanon, especially with Hezbollah's crisis in losing its parliamentary majority?

Or will Iran seek to escalate through Syrian territory?

Certainly, the regime in Damascus is now wondering: if the Quds Force is infiltrated, what will be the state of the Israeli infiltration of the Syrian regime? And what will be the consequences of any military operation in Syria?

To sum up, the Quds Force, the foreign arm of the Revolutionary Guards, is being pursued inside Iran itself, and this is a turning point in the ongoing conflict in our region, which may bring us closer to a new war. The question here is: is it a war with calculated consequences?