Iran Update, October 15, 2024
Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force Commander Brigadier General Esmail Ghaani attended IRGC Operations Deputy Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan’s funeral in Tehran on October 15.[115] Ghaani was last seen publicly when he visited the Hezbollah office in Tehran on September 29.[116] Western and Middle Eastern outlets speculated that Ghaani was killed or injured during the Israeli airstrike targeting Hashem Safi ed Din—the presumed successor to Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah—in Beirut on October 4.[117] Photos of Ghaani attending Nilforoushan’s funeral confirm Ghaani is alive and in Iran at the time of this writing.[118] Nilforoushan died in the Israeli airstrike that killed Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut on September 27.[119] Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and IRGC Commander Hossein Salami also attended the funeral, among other Iranian senior leadership.[120]
Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Ansar ol Mehdi Protection Corps Sardar Fathullah Jamiri introduced Hadi Melanori as the new commander of the IRGC Aviation Protection Unit on October 12.[121] The IRGC Aviation Protection Unit is responsible for airport and aircraft security to prevent airplane hijackings in Iran.[122] The IRGC Aviation Protection Unit has a ”direct relationship” with other Iranian military institutions including the Artesh and IRGC Aerospace Force.[123] Mohammad Mehdi Masoumi is the former commander of the Aviation Protection Unit.[124]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-october-15-2024
Iranian Parliamentarian Ali Asghar Nakhaei Rad urged the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) to ask Khamenei to reconsider his 2003 fatwa banning nuclear weapons.[38] Nakhaei Rad emphasized that “time and place” affects fatwas and “Shia jurisprudence is dynamic,” suggesting that current regional conditions could justify a shift in Iran's nuclear doctrine. Nakhaei Rad was among the thirty-nine Iranian parliamentarians who signed a letter to the SNSC calling for a revision of Iranian “defense doctrine” and for the SNSC to “issue permission and provide facilities for the production of nuclear weapons.”[39] CTP-ISW previously assessed that the letter was likely sent to the SNSC to encourage them to persuade Khamenei to reconsider his fatwa, as he has ultimate authority to revoke it.[40]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-october-16-2024