The official Farsi-language Mossad account on X declared Monday that Brig. Gen. Esmail Qaani, commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, “is not our spy,” brushing aside months of Western speculation that the Iranian general had been flipped by Israel’s intelligence service.
The six-word post — “قاآنی جاسوس ما نیست.” (“Qaani is not our spy.”) — appeared under the handle @MossadSpokesman early Monday afternoon. The account has amassed more than 140,000 followers since Iran and Israel agreed to a ceasefire on June 24.
Unconfirmed reports that Qaani had cooperated with Mossad surfaced after his abrupt disappearance from public view during Israel’s covert air campaign in late 2024. British tabloid and regional outlets suggested he was interrogated — and possibly tortured — by Iranian security officials who suspected he leaked targeting data that enabled Israeli strikes on Hezbollah leaders in Beirut.
Bloggers and fringe news sites then claimed Qaani was under house arrest or had died of a heart attack “during questioning.” Those stories gained fresh traction this month when some commentators linked Israel’s precision attacks on Iranian missile depots to an “inside source” within the IRGC.
Tehran dismisses claims as psychological warfare
Iran dismissed the espionage claims as “psychological warfare.” On June 25, Qaani made an unannounced appearance at a street rally in central Tehran, smiling and chatting with civilians in what Iranian media called “victory celebrations” marking the ceasefire.
His walkabout was the Quds Force chief’s first on-camera sighting in nearly two weeks and appeared calculated to rebut foreign reports of his detention or death. State-run IRNA noted pointedly that the general looked “in good health.”
Qaani, 62, succeeded the late Qassem Soleimani as head of the Quds Force after a US drone strike killed Soleimani in January 2020. He oversees Iran’s network of proxy militias across the Middle East and is subject to US and EU terrorism sanctions.