Esmail Qaani ইসমাইল কানি) is an Iranian brigadier general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who serves as the commander of the IRGC Quds Force, an elite special operations force responsible for extraterritorial operations. Qaani succeeded Qasem Soleimani as Quds Force commander after Soleimani was assassinated in January 2020.

Qaani was born in Mashhad, a pilgrimage city and the second most populous in Iran. He joined the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in 1980.

During the Iran–Iraq War, Qaani led the 5th Nasr Brigade and 21st Imam Reza Armored Brigade. In 1981, he received his military training in Imam Ali Officers' Academy in Tehran. The war was where he first met the late IRGC general, Qasem Soleimani, who was the commander of the 41st Tharallah Division at the time.

After the war, he joined the IRGC's Quds Force and began his activities in Khorasan Province, which borders Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Pakistan. While Soleimani was stationed in the west, Qaani focused on Iranian priorities in the east, such as combating drug smuggling and supporting Afghanistan's Northern Alliance in its battles against the Taliban during the Third Afghan Civil War.

In June 2025, The New York Times, without providing sources, reported that Esmail Qaani had been killed in Israeli airstrikes conducted during the early stages of the 2025 Iran–Israel war. The Israel Defense Forces did not claim responsibility for targeting him, and Iranian authorities issued no confirmation regarding his status.

This was not the first instance of unverified reports concerning Qaani's death. In October 2024, following an Israeli airstrike in Beirut that killed senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, speculation arose in regional media outlets suggesting Qaani had also been killed or injured, although no official confirmation was provided. Subsequent reports suggested that Qaani had been questioned by Iranian authorities regarding security lapses following Safieddine's death.

In March 2012, Qaani was added to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), freezing his presumed assets and prohibiting transactions with U.S. entities. The U.S. targeted Qaani with sanctions for overseeing the distribution of Quds Force funding to regional allies.

In October 2017, the Trump administration announced new sanctions against the Revolutionary Guard as a supporter of terrorist groups. Qaani responded, "We are not a war-mongering country. But any military action against Iran will be regretted... Trump's threats against Iran will damage America... We have buried many... like Trump and know how to fight against America."