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Did Iran Mistakenly Admit that a Sought-After Revolutionary Guard Commander Was Disguised as a Diplomat?
(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Lt.-Col. (ret.) Michael Segall and Iran Desk - In 2020, the U.S. offered a $15 million reward for information leading to the capture of Brig.-Gen. Abdul Raza Shala'i, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force (IRGC-QF) in Yemen. On Dec. 22, 2021, the official Iranian news agency IRNA profiled Hassan Irlou, Iran's Ambassador to the Houthi forces in Yemen, who had supposedly died from the coronavirus, and noted that the diplomat was also known as Brig.-Gen. Abdul Reza Shahla'i, "a comrade in arms of Qasem Soleimani." Irlou played a leading role in formulating the Houthis' political and military strategy in their war against Saudi Arabia. After Irlou's death, rumors circulated on social media and in Iranian media that he had been wounded in a Saudi airstrike in Sanaa and died of his wounds after being transferred to Iran. Video footage showed that Irlou's funeral took none of the precautionary measures required at funerals of corona patients. Photos of Irlou in the hospital showed the attendants with no protective gear.