Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations says the four Iranians killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Sunday were diplomats, after the Israeli military identified them as senior IRGC Quds Force agents.
The four men were killed in an Israeli attack on the Ramada Hotel in Beirut in the early hours of Sunday.
In a letter addressed to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the president of the Security Council, Iran’s UN envoy Amir Saeid Iravani said the four men were diplomats, identifying them as Majid Hassani Kondsar, a second secretary; Alireza Bi-Azar, a third secretary; Hossein Ahmadlou, an attaché; and Ahmad Rasouli, assigned to the mission.
Israeli sources, however, had identified the dead as Majid Hosseini, the financial officer of the Lebanon branch of the Quds Force; Ali Biazaar, its intelligence officer; Hossein Ahmadlou, head of what they described as the branch’s “Zionist file”; and Ahmad Rasouli, head of the Intelligence Department in the Palestine Corps.
The Israeli military said the targets were commanders from the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force who it said were operating in Lebanon to plan attacks against Israel while also coordinating with the IRGC in Iran.
“The commanders of the Quds Force's Lebanon Corps operated to advance terror attacks against the state of Israel and its civilians, while operating simultaneously for the IRGC in Iran,” the military said in a statement.
