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Qaani: We Partially Avenged Suleimani’s Killing by Expelling US Forces from the Region

Photo published by the Qom Seminary website of a meeting between Qaani and a group of clerics on Wednesday.
Photo published by the Qom Seminary website of a meeting between Qaani and a group of clerics on Wednesday.
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Qaani: We Partially Avenged Suleimani’s Killing by Expelling US Forces from the Region

Photo published by the Qom Seminary website of a meeting between Qaani and a group of clerics on Wednesday.
Photo published by the Qom Seminary website of a meeting between Qaani and a group of clerics on Wednesday.

IRGC foreign operations’ official, Esmail Qaani, said that his forces partially avenged the assassination of Al-Quds commander, General Qassem Suleimani, by expelling US forces from the region.

 

“America, Israel and even NATO...are mobilizing to destroy Iran,” Qaani was quoted by Fars news agency as saying, during a meeting with young clerics in Qom.

 

He added: “America retreats every day and shows signs of decline.”

 

When asked about the “time of revenge for the blood” of his predecessor, Qassem Suleimani, Qaani pointed to previous statements by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, saying that part of the revenge was “the expulsion of the American forces in the region.”

 

The former commander of Al-Quds Force was killed by a US strike moments after his arrival at Baghdad airport in early 2020. Suleimani’s killing came months after he obtained the highest military rank from Khamenei because of the role of his forces in the Syria and Iraq war.

 

Iranian officials have repeatedly threatened to “strongly” avenge the assassination of the senior military official. Those threats targeted former US President Donald Trump, his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and the former US Special Representative for Iran, Brian Hook, in addition to generals in the US army.

 

In November, the US State Department informed members of Congress that “Iranian threats” against Pompeo and Hook “remain” on US soil. Reports last year noted that providing the two officials with around-the-clock protection would cost more than $2 million a month.

 

Tehran, which has solid relations with Baghdad, opposes the US military presence on its borders in Iraq and the Gulf, saying that Western military intervention is the main cause of insecurity in the region.

 

“Iraq should not allow the presence of Americans on its soil, not even one American,” Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said during his meeting with Iraqi President Abdul Latif Jamal Rashid last week.

 

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Senior Israeli Army Officer among Suspects in ‘Leaks Scandal’

 A photo published by Israeli Channel 12 of the central suspect in the leaks case.
 A photo published by Israeli Channel 12 of the central suspect in the leaks case.
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Senior Israeli Army Officer among Suspects in ‘Leaks Scandal’

 A photo published by Israeli Channel 12 of the central suspect in the leaks case.
 A photo published by Israeli Channel 12 of the central suspect in the leaks case.

The arrest of a new senior army officer involved in a suspected leak of classified Gaza documents has sparked a wave of political controversy and public outcry in Israeli politics.
In the past few days, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and some individuals close to him tried to downplay the so-called “leaks scandal” and portrayed it as “just an ordinary incitement against the PM.”
But on Monday, an Israeli army officer was arrested by police investigators as part of the probe into leaked classified documents from the Prime Minister’s Office.
Hebrew media reports said the officer was relaxing with his wife and children in a hotel in the southern city of Eilat, when a force of masked policemen raided the place, arrested him, and took him to an investigation room in the Tel Aviv area without providing further information.
Observers suggest this officer is one of the security personnel who leaked and falsified documents from the military to compromise efforts to secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
The arrest is the fifth so far in the high-profile investigation. The five suspects include a civilian spokesman from Netanyahu's circle and four members of the security establishment.
Hebrew media outlets on Monday uncovered new information about the central suspect in the case, Eli Feldstein, the only person whose name was allowed to be published. Feldstein has previously worked for National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. He then worked as a spokesman for Netanyahu from soon after the Hamas attack in southern Israel in October 2023.
According to people close to the investigation, one of the tasks assigned to Feldstein in the PM’s office was to “share with various media outlets security information that serves Netanyahu.”
Feldstein is suspected of receiving secret documents from army officers and then sharing them with a false interpretation to both the German Bild newspaper and the UK’s Jewish Chronicle, which are both close to Netanyahu and his wife.
The scandal started when details from a secret document were published by the German Bild newspaper on Sept. 6.
The report cited a document captured in Gaza indicating that Hamas’s main concern in ceasefire negotiations with Israel was to rehabilitate its military capabilities, and not to alleviate the suffering of Gaza’s civilian population. Bild said it had obtained the spring 2024 document exclusively, without offering further details. It said the document was found on a computer in Gaza that belonged to now-slain Hamas leader Sinwar.
Around the same time, Jewish Chronicle published a report saying that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar planned to smuggle hostages through the Philadelphi Corridor to Egypt.
Netanyahu has used those reports to justify his control over the Philadelphi Corridor along Gaza's border with Egypt and to thwart the hostages deal.
In the past days, the scandal has provoked sharp criticism from opposition leaders and the families of hostages.
The independent media said it highlighted “the corruption that knows no bounds” in the Netanyahu government.
Yossi Verter wrote in the Haaretz newspaper that, “Recent scandals among those in Netanyahu's inner circle reveal the nature of his entourage – a crime organization that places him above the country and national security concerns.”
Speaking about the main suspect in the case, Feldstein, Verter wrote, “The new star, burning with motivation to prove himself, quickly adapted to the office's corrupt semi-criminal atmosphere, its moral and ethical decay and its culture of lies, manipulation, and disinformation.”
At the Maariv newspaper, Shimon Hefetz, a colonel in the army reserve and military secretary to three Israeli presidents, spoke on Monday at the 29th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, saying: “(The assassination) will forever be a shocking day for Israeli democracy, as it is happening in the Prime Minister's office today.”