Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike targets the Qasmiya Bridge, one of the key transit points connecting the southern and northern parts of the country, linking the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon to Sidon, on 22 March 2026.
Ahmad Kaddoura/Anadolu via Getty Images
- Esmail Qaani praised Iran-backed groups for shaping a “new regional order”.
- He said groups like Hezbollah and the Houthis had undermined Israel’s plans in the region.
- His message comes amid ongoing uncertainty about his role during the war involving Iran and Israel.
The commander of the foreign operations branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards issued a rare message on Monday hailing Iranian proxy groups for helping create a “new regional order”.
Esmail Qaani became head of the Guards’ Quds Force after the killing of Qassem Soleimani in a US strike in Iraq in 2020.
His message, just the second attributed to him since the US-Israeli war against the Islamic Republic began on 28 February, was posted on X under the handle @general_Qaani, although the social media giant then rapidly suspended the account with a note that “X suspends accounts which violate the X Rules.”
The message was also widely published by Iranian news agencies and state television.
Qaani said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to create a “security belt across the region,” but the actions of Tehran-backed militant groups, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, had “exposed the regime’s false promises”.
He said:
Get used to the new regional order.
Qaani was reported to have been killed in the 12-day war between Israel and Iran last June, but re-emerged in public.
Intense speculation has since surrounded his whereabouts and standing, amid unconfirmed reports he had come under pressure due to alleged intelligence lapses, including the 2024 killing in Lebanon by Israel of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
A dozen key figures in the security apparatus, including supreme leader Ali Khamenei and overall Guards chief Mohammad Pakpour, have been killed in airstrikes in the latest war.
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But Qaani is one of the most prominent people not to have been declared dead.
On 20 March, Iranian state media issued the first message of the war in Qaani’s name, predicting that Iran would “soon witness the shameful defeat” of its enemies.