The commander of Unit 840, he was the direct-action element of the Quds Force. He was tasked with non-attributable covert action, to include the assassination of anyone the regime designated, from dissidents in foreign countries badmouthing the Supreme Leader to foreign officials deemed to be a threat. While most Quds Force activities leveraged proxy militias, suchas the Houthis in Yemen or Hezbollah in Lebanon, Sardar executed missions personally, on the sharp end of the spear. One of the few regime organizations that actually executed operations with Iranian hands, he didn’t trust anyone. Not even the commander of the IRGC ballistic missile program.
Brigadier General Komeil Kohnsal, the Chief of Staff for the commander of the entire IRGC said, “His fear is not without merit. All of you should remember that if we’re found out, we’ll hang.”
Sardar took a seat and said, “Sir, this is your plan. Your idea. Are you having doubts now? After all my work?”
Kohnsal said, “No. We need to continue, even if the Supreme Leader doesn’t see the merit yet. It’s worth the risk, but only if you’ve succeeded in the preparations.”
Out of the four, only Sardar had held his position more than a year. The rest were recent replacements as their predecessor—in some cases, predecessors—had been targeted and eliminated by Israel in the latest round of fighting.
Three of the men at the table believed in the mission they were conducting. General Kohnsal had developed the strategy. General Qaani had fleshed it out, bringing in Sardar for pre-mission preparations. The fourth, General Hajizadeh, wasn’t so sure, but as the head of the missile command, his participation was critical.
He said, “If this is so necessary, then why are we conducting this meeting in secret? Why don’t we operate with the blessing of the Supreme Leader?”
General Qaani said, “We conduct this in secret because the Supreme Leader, as great as he is, does not see the future. He lives in the past, when we had victory after victory, not the present, with disasters unfolding before us. We’ve been defeated in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Syria and probably very soon in Yemen. Our air defenses have been demolished, leaving the homeland open to anyone who wants to fly over with a bomb. The Zionist dogs smell blood, and it’spreciselybecause we’re bleeding. We need to strike back with an overwhelming blow, or we’re going to be swallowed.”
After the US assassination of General Qasem Soleimani, and then his successor’s death from an Israeli drone strike, Qaani had been handpicked to command the Quds Force. As a man who’d fought both on the front lines and in the shadow wars of Iran since the 1979 revolution, his words held weight. But his stature alone wasn’t enough to convince General Hajizadeh.
He said, “You speak the truth, but I’ve heard all this before. You haven’t said how we’ll succeed. You keep hinting about the uranium I control, but the Zionists and Americans have destroyed any ability to convert it to a final weapon. It’s simply enriched, but in and of itself, it can’t do any harm.”
General Kohnsal said, “That’s not true. Even by itself it is a potent force, if used correctly, but the primary one is that the uranium will just be a catalyst. The true revolution will come from the West Bank.”
“West Bank? What does that mean?”
General Qaani said, “Even as Hezbollah and Hamas have been eviscerated, we’ve been infiltrating arms and training into the West Bank. We have a cadre of men ready to resist. To fight. This will cause others to rise up. It won’t be like the Nakba. Nobody will flee from this fight. Instead, they will flee towards it, just as we saw happen with the Great Satan in Iraq. The Palestinian cause has faded from the world view, but the hatred of Israel thrives. We need to rekindle and intertwine both.”
General Hajizadeh took in his words, letting them settle. Eventually, he said, “What makes you think that will happen? It hasn’t so far. There was no huge reaction to the Zionists obliterating Gaza. Nobody rose up when they assassinated Nasrallah. Nobody even struck back when your predecessor, General Soleimani, was assassinated by the Great Satan.” He looked around the room, then said, “While I want to believe, past history has proven that success doesn’t care about beliefs. What’s different now?”
General Qaani said, “It’s not what’s different now, but what will be different when we execute. We’ll lay the groundwork to make Israel look weak. No, forget that, notlookweak. To cause them tobecomeweak.”
General Hajizadeh furrowed his brow, saying, “How?”
“By using some of the uranium you control to create what is known as a dirty bomb.”
Astonished, General Hajizadeh said, “Are you serious? That will be a waste of what little uranium we’ve enriched to weapons grade. It’s our final leverage point with the Great Satan, and our only way to break out to a nuclear capable weapon after they destroyed our facility at Fordow.”
“True, but for two points. We have four hundred kilograms, which is enough for ten nuclear weapons. We only need one or two. I’m not proposing using all of it for this. In fact, I can’t successfully infiltrate that amount into Palestine. Second, the leverage is precisely the knowledge that we have it. They won’t know it’s gone until it is used. The leverage remains whether we use some in this operation or not.”
“I still don’t see how this will work differently than any other blast. All it will do is cause massive fear and confusion, not destruction. It will make the Zionists react with overwhelming force.”
“Precisely. That is the catalyst. One, the Zionists’ perceived superiority and security will be pierced like a balloon. No more failures with your rocket attacks. No more looking weak as everything we throw at Tel Aviv is shot out of the air. We’ll use the same playbook Mossad used against us when they infiltrated drones into our desert. The Zionists’ security will be laid bare, and they will do to the West Bank what they did to Gaza, and that will be the tipping point. The world will turn against them, and the people in Gaza and the West Bank will no longer line up for handouts of food, but for killing Zionists.”
General Hajizadeh considered his words, then said, “But it is still a single blow. When you asked for this meeting, you implied it would be more.”
“Thereismore. Your uranium is the capstone attack, but we are also going to attack the capital of the Great Satan, paralyzing its government right before we initiate the weapon. There will be no Great Satan telling the Little Satan to stand down. The Zionists will have free rein to run rampant throughout the West Bank.”
Surprised, General Hajizadeh said, “How? How will you do that? Another dirty bomb? Do you wish uranium for that as well? That won’t do anything but make the news. Americans aren’t going to rise up and take over their capitol.”
Qaani said, “No, we don’t need uranium for this strike, and you misunderstood. We aren’t going to attack their Capitol building, we’re going to attack their capital city.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Not your concern. Just understand that we won’t use your precious uranium unless we’ve succeeded on that front.”
“Who will control the weapon? Will it be Pasdaran men?”
“No. Unfortunately, we don’t have the capability to do that anymore, but our infrastructure from the past remains. A good team that isn’t known to the Zionists.”
“What if they go rogue? I’m not comfortable giving our crown jewels to some desert beggars. How will you control them?”
