Commander of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Commander, Major General Qasem Soleimani(L) stands at the frontline in the town of Tal Ksaiba in Salahuddin province March 8, 2015. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
London - Adil al-Salmi
The Iranian State TV broadcast on Tuesday an exclusive interview with Commander of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Commander, Major General Qasem Soleimani, who has given an insight on his role in Lebanon during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
This is the first interview of Soleimani, who is in charge of foreign operations especially in Syria and Iraq.
During the 90-minute interview, Soleimani gave details of his role in Lebanon in advising ‘Hezbollah’ during the 34-day war. He came to Lebanon accompanied by Hezbollah military leader Imad Mughniyeh who was later assassinated in 2008.
Mughniyeh was considered the engineer of the 2006 war, which killed 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis.
Soleimani spoke about the incident that triggered the war, represented in a group from Hezbollah managing to “attack a vehicle of the Zionists, inside the occupied lands and captured two wounded persons from inside the vehicle as hostages” on July 12.
After one week of his arrival to Lebanon, he traveled to Iran to brief Khamenei on the updates in Lebanon -- Soleimani returned on the same day with a message to Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.
The Major General remained in the country until the end of the war. He didn’t mention the presence of other Iranians and only narrated his personal experience during the interview.
He also recounted how, under Israeli bombardment of Hezbollah's stronghold in Beirut's southern suburbs, he and Mughniyeh moved out Nasrallah from his "operations room" where they were based, and then they returned to the command center.
The interview, which was carried out by Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's office, came days after it published a photo showing Nasrallah next to Khamenei and Soleimani, in an apparent recent meeting between the three in Tehran.
