On January 3, the US took out Iranian regime terrorist Qasem Soleimani, but this is not the end for Iran’s terrorism. In fact, his position as Commander in Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ (IRGC) Quds Force, was soon taken over by his deputy of 20 years Esmail Ghaani.
Esmail Ghaani, 62, has spent many years actively repressing the Iranian people, at the same time as helping the Iranian regime to aggressively expand across the Middle East. He rose through the ranks quickly after helping to crush the Kurdish uprising in 1979, just after the mullahs took power in Iran.
Over the past few years, whilst Soleimani was involved in the regime’s proxy wars in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq, Ghaani was tasked with supporting terrorist militias in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Africa.
Esmail Ghaani earned his place on America’s terrorism blacklist in 2012 after sending 13 shipping containers full-on 107mm Katyusha rockets, rifle ammunition and other weapons to the Gambia.
Shortly afterwards, his focus was centred on the Middle East, where he conducted a genocidal campaign against innocent Sunni civilians in Iraq while claiming to be fighting ISIS. He was also closely involved in the regime’s proxy wars in Yemen and Syria, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians.
Straight after Soleimani’s funeral, Esmail Ghaani met with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, his deputy Saleh al-Arouri, and other Hamas members. Iran has supplied Hamas’s military wing with training, financial support and weapons since at least 2007.
Ghaani said: “We promise to continue down the martyr Soleimani’s path as firmly as before with the help of God and in return for his martyrdom we aim to get rid of America from the region.”
It is likely that he supervised the launch of 20 missiles targeting two American military bases in Iraq on January 7 as revenge for Soleimani’s death. Luckily, there were no casualties and limited damage.
Struan Stevenson is the Coordinator of the Campaign for Iran Change (CiC), wrote: “We can be certain that all is not well in Iran. Ghaani will assuredly now be engaged in detailed planning for a major terrorist outrage. He will be keen to show Iran’s supreme leader that he is a worthy successor to Soleimani and his only credible way of doing that will be by executing an act of unspeakable horror against the enemies of the Islamic Republic.”
The former member of the European Parliament and chair of the Friends of a Free Iran Intergroup, continued: “Soleimani’s blood-spattered demise should act as a warning to Ghaani, that like the Mafia Godfathers of old, there is no impunity for the perpetrators of evil.”
