Iran’s elite Quds Force is following former leader’s vision of chaos in the Middle East – By Javed Ali (Gerald R Ford School of Public Policy) / March 4, 2024
Esmail Ghaani, who took over when the U.S. killed Qassem Soleimani, has doubled down on the strategy of supporting, arming and funding terrorist and insurgent groups.
Most Americans have likely never heard of Esmail Ghaani, despite his fingerprints being over a slew of recent attacks on U.S. targets.
As the powerful chief of the Quds Force, the unconventional warfare wing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Ghaani is charged with overseeing Tehran’s network of allied and proxy groups across the Middle East.
But despite recent media attention following a significant increase in attacks by Quds-backed militants since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack in Israel, Ghaani remains a figure who largely shuns the public spotlight.
This is both like and unlike his predecessor Qassem Soleimani, who died in a controversial 2020 U.S. strike in Iraq.
