CNN
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Iran has vowed to retaliate after it accused Israel of bombing an embassy complex in Syria on Monday, amid deadly escalation in regional tensions over the Gaza conflict. The Gaza conflict appears to be raising the risk of another broader Middle East conflict.
Iran's foreign ministry said an airstrike destroyed its consulate in the capital, Damascus, including the top commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Mohamed Reza Zahedi, and senior commander Mohamed Hadi Hadji Rahimi. At least seven officials were killed.
Iranian state television reported on Tuesday that at least six Syrian nationals were also killed.
Zahedi, a former commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Ground Forces, Air Force, and its deputy commander for operations, is the most senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard since then-President Donald Trump ordered the assassination of Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad. It became a high-profile Iranian target. 2020.
Iran and Syria blamed Israel for the attack, Iran warned of a “serious response” and Iran-backed Lebanese powerful militant group Hezbollah said the attack would be met with “punishment and retaliation”. Stated. Iran also said it would hold the United States “responsible” for its support for Israel.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel would be punished for the attack, and President Ebrahim Raisi said it would “not go unanswered,” according to state news agency IRNA.
The Israeli military told CNN it does not comment on foreign reports. However, a military spokesperson said Israel believed the attacked targets were “military installations of the Quds Force”, the Revolutionary Guards unit responsible for external operations.
“According to our information, this is not a consulate or an embassy,” Israeli Defense Forces spokesman Maj. Gen. Daniel Hagari told CNN. “Let me repeat: this is not a consulate or an embassy. This is a military installation of the Quds Force disguised as a civilian building in Damascus.”
The New York Times reported that four anonymous Israeli officials confirmed that Israel carried out the attack.
CNN cannot verify the Times report, nor can it independently verify claims by Iran, Syria or Israel.
The United States considers that not only its own embassies and consulates abroad have special status, but also foreign embassies and consulates in the United States. According to the U.S. State Department, “an attack on an embassy is considered an attack on the country it represents.”
A White House National Security Council spokesperson said the United States was not involved in the attack and had no prior knowledge of it. US officials said the information was passed “directly” to Tehran.
Israel has stepped up military operations against Iran and its regional proxies after the Tehran-backed Palestinian group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostages. There is.
Israel's subsequent war in Gaza left more than 32,800 people dead in the besieged enclave, caused widespread destruction and pushed more than 1 million people to the brink of man-made starvation, according to the Health Ministry. .
Israel has long targeted Iran and its proxies in Syria, but the recent apparent attack in Damascus marks a significant escalation in both location and targeting. The consulate building, which includes the ambassador's residence, is located next to the Iranian embassy and is considered Iranian sovereign territory.
Protesters gathered across Tehran to vent their anger and burn Israeli and American flags.
Iranian Ambassador to Syria Hossein Akbari said: “This is probably the first time that the Zionist regime has authorized an attack on the official building of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, where the flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran was displayed.'' ” he said.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Qanani warned that Tehran “reserves the right to take reciprocal measures and decide on the type of response and punishment against the aggressor.”
Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdullahian also called the attack a “violation of all international obligations and treaties” and called for a “serious response” from the international community.
Amir Abdullahian also held the United States responsible for its support for Israel, underscoring the growing tensions between Tehran and the United States.
“The United States must take responsibility,” Iran's top diplomat said in a post to X.
Amir Abdullahian added that the Iranian government summoned the Swiss chargé d'affaires early Tuesday morning local time to discuss the incident. Switzerland represents US interests in Iran.
“The scale of the Israeli regime's terrorist attacks and crimes was explained and the responsibility of the American government was highlighted,” Amir Abdullahian said.
Meanwhile, Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad described the attack as a “grave violation of international regulations, in particular the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.”
Analysts say one of the most immediate effects of the consulate attack could be an increase in attacks by Iranian proxies, particularly against U.S. forces.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called on all parties to exercise restraint and warned that any miscalculation could spark widespread conflict with “catastrophic consequences”, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. Stated.
“Attack on U.S. forces by Iraqi and Syrian militias could increase or resume. And that would mean an Israeli attack on Iran would actually put a target on the back of U.S. forces in the Middle East. ” Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible States and Strategy, told CNN.
Since the outbreak of war in Gaza, Iranian proxies have launched attacks against Israel and its allies while demanding a ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave.
Iranian-backed forces in Iraq and Syria have launched dozens of attacks targeting U.S. military positions in those countries, including a drone attack on a U.S. military outpost in Jordan near the Syrian border in January. Three US soldiers were killed.
In retaliation, the United States attacked dozens of Iranian-backed targets in Iraq and Syria.
Meanwhile, Houthi rebels have launched a series of attacks on merchant ships and Western warships in the Red Sea, a major artery of international trade.
“It is clear that this escalation by Iranian-backed Iraqi militias is being done in response to what is happening in Gaza,” Parsi said.
As the Middle East braces for a possible Iranian response, Tehran's government is under pressure to show strength after the attack on its consulate but avoid drawing the region into a wider war.
Hezbollah, Iran's most powerful militia alliance, may be the most likely tool.
Lebanese Shiite militant groups have been locked in daily firefights with Israeli forces for almost six months. It walks a fine line between trying to limit extremist activity to border areas and enforcing retaliatory rules of engagement.
Its involvement has also raised concerns that Israel's war in Gaza could spill over into a broader regional conflict.
Hezbollah on Tuesday warned that Israel would pay for the attack on the consulate and praised Zahedi and others who were killed as “great martyrs.”
The group said in a statement that the assassination would not stop “an angry wave of popular resistance” and that its enemies would face “punishment and retribution.”
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also under intense domestic pressure to secure the release of all hostages taken in the October 7 terrorist attack.
Over the weekend, thousands of people took to the streets in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, holding banners and calling for the prime minister's resignation and for Israel to hold new elections in the largest protests since the start of the war with Hamas.
However, Israeli military spokesman Hagari blamed Iran for escalating tensions in the region.
“I'm not going to comment on that attack, but I want to say that in the last six months Iran has escalated in this region. She's the star,” he told CNN.
“[Iran] It is a major actor in carrying out atrocities in the region using proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. ”
