Intelligence Minister implicates IRGC mole in Fakhrizadeh assassination; cancellation of Qalibaf meeting with Putin controversy; Iran Judiciary chief visits Iraq; recent Iran-Taliban talks; Huthi terror delisting reactions; Slim assassination; Huthi offensive in central Yemen
This article originally appeared in Atlantic Council’s Iran Source on February 8, 2021. Lebanese militant group Hezbollah remains committed to avenging Qasem Soleimani’s death—at least rhetorically. Shortly after the United States assassinated the Quds Force commander in January 2020, Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah vowed that US troops “who came to the region vertically will return home horizontally.” His hand gesture—a horizontal hand affixed perpendicularly over a vertical hand—representing US forces returning home in coffins became the official symbol of Iran and the Resistance Axis’ promised “Hard Revenge.” Nevertheless, at the time of Soleimani’s…