Above photo: Smoke rises after a strike, which Iranian media and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) have attributed to Israel, on a building close to the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria, April 1, 2024. Firas Makdesi / Reuters.
The strike killed at least seven Iranian diplomats.
It amounts to a major escalation of the war against Iran and the Axis of Resistance.
Israeli airstrikes destroyed the Iranian consulate in Damascus on 1 April, killing and injuring several Iranian diplomats in what is viewed as a significant escalation of the regional war between Israel and the Axis of Resistance.
“Around 17:00 this afternoon, the ‘Israeli’ enemy launched an aerial aggression from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting the Iranian consulate building in Damascus. Our air defenses confronted the enemy’s missiles, downing some of them,” the Syrian Ministry of Defense announced Monday.
The ministry added that “The aggression resulted in the complete destruction of the building and the martyrdom and injury of everyone inside. Efforts are underway to recover the bodies of the martyrs, provide aid to the wounded, and remove the debris.”
Iran’s Ambassador to Damascus, Hossein Akbari, confirmed the Israeli attack targeted the consular section of the embassy building, which lies on sovereign Iranian territory, with six missiles.
Akbari said seven people were killed in the strike, but the names and the exact number of dead have yet to be specified.
He promised a “harsh response,” explaining that, “This regime has no respect for international laws,” he added. “We will support the resistant nation [of Palestine] and have no fear of the criminality of this regime.”
Reuters claimed that according to a Lebanese security source, one of the dead was Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
Reuters reported that the consulate, located in the Mezzeh district of the Syrian capital, had been “flattened.” Emergency vehicles were parked outside, and the Syrian and Iranian foreign ministers were spotted at the scene.
An Israeli military spokesperson refused to comment.
Israel is facing a war on multiple fronts against Axis of Resistance members from Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Iran.
Political analyst Amal Saad observed that “Israel’s killing of a very senior IRGC commander in Syria, along with others inside the Iranian Consulate, appears less about employing the ‘Madman Theory’ to intimidate and deter its adversaries, and more about deliberately embracing a strategy of chaotic warfare to escalate and expand the scope of the conflict so that the US will be forced to directly enter the war.”
Iran ‘Will Respond’ To Israeli Attack On Syria Consulate.
Washington was quick to distance itself from the attack, claiming no prior knowledge or involvement.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi vowed on 2 April that the deadly Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Syria’s capital “will not go unanswered.”
“After repeated defeats and failures against the faith and will of the Resistance Front fighters, the Zionist regime has put blind assassinations on its agenda in the struggle to save itself,” the office of the president said in a statement.
“Day by day, we have witnessed the strengthening of the Resistance Front and the disgust and hatred of free nations towards the illegitimate nature of [Israel]. This cowardly crime will not go unanswered,” it added.
Washington said that day that it informed Iran it had no involvement in the deadly strike on 1 April, according to a US official.
The US said it “had no involvement in the [Israeli] strike, and we did not know about it ahead of time,” a US official told Axios on 2 April, adding that Washington has “has communicated this directly to Iran.”
The airstrike resulted in the complete leveling of the Iranian consulate in Syria’s capital, Damascus, killing several, including a senior officer in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi.
IRGC officer Brigadier General Mohammad Hadi Hajj Rahimi was also killed in the attack, alongside five other advisors and officials.
“An important message was sent to the American government as a supporter of the Zionist regime. America must be held accountable,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on social media.
Translation: Following the Israeli regime’s terrorist attack on the diplomatic building of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s consulate in Damascus and the martyrdom of several of our country’s official military advisors, the Swiss embassy official as the protector of America’s interests in Iran, at 00:45 this morning (Tuesday) by the US Director General to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was called In this summons, the dimensions of the terrorist attack and the crime of the Israeli regime were explained and the responsibility of the American government was emphasized. An important message was sent to the American government as a supporter of the Zionist regime. America must be held accountable.
On Monday, Tehran called for an emergency session at the UN Security Council in order to discuss the “egregious violation.”
“Considering the far-reaching international implications of such a reprehensible act which can exacerbate tensions in the region and potentially ignite more conflict involving other nations, Iran urges the Security Council to condemn this unjustified criminal act and terrorist act perpetrated by the Israel regime in the strongest terms possible,” the Iranian ambassador to the UN, Zahra Ershadi, wrote in a letter.
Other Iranian officials have vowed a response. Iran’s ambassador in Syria, Hossein Akbari, said Israel “will face consequences for their actions, and we will respond with the same intensity.”
Several nations have condemned the deadly attack on the consulate. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and Egypt all released statements, as well as resistance groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
Iraq’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the attack was “a clear and flagrant violation of international law and Syrian sovereignty.”
Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad described the attack as a “fascist Israeli aggression” on Monday, telling his Iranian counterpart, “Syria stands by Iran against assaults that reflect Israel’s state of hysteria.”
He added that the strike is “a result of its miserable failure in its war against the Palestinian people in Gaza.”
Israel Vows To ‘Act Anywhere’ Following Syria and Lebanon Strikes.
Israel has escalated its attacks against IRGC and Hezbollah commanders in Lebanon and Syria in recent weeks.
Israel’s goal is to “act everywhere, every day to prevent the force build-up of our enemies,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on 2 April, in an apparent reference to the bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, the day before.
As is customary, Israel did not take credit for the bombing, which killed Iranian diplomats and a top commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Mohammad Reza Zahedi, and his deputy.
“We are in a multi-front war, in the offense and defense. We see evidence of this every day, including in recent days,” he said at a meeting of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
Gallant says Israel is also working “to make it clear to everyone who acts against us, all over the Middle East, that the price for acting against Israel will be a heavy price.”
Gallant made similar comments on Friday following Israeli strikes on Aleppo and southern Lebanon, further affirming his intention to escalate the war against Hezbollah both on the Lebanese border and elsewhere.
Speaking at the army’s Northern Command in Safed, Gallant claimed, “Israel is transitioning from defense to pursuit of Hezbollah; we will reach wherever the organization operates, in Beirut, Damascus, and beyond,” he said. “Wherever we need to act, we will act.”
More than 44 people, including 36 Syrian soldiers and seven Hezbollah members, were killed in the Israeli airstrikes in Aleppo on Friday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
In Lebanon, an Israeli drone strike hit a car near the southern port city of Tyre, killing a Hezbollah member, Ali Naim.
Israel claimed Naim was the deputy head of Hezbollah’s rocket and missile program.
The killing came after Hezbollah fired a barrage of Katyusha and Burkan rockets toward the Israeli settlements of Goren and Shlomi.
Lebanon’s Al-Manar TV said the group had not previously fired Burkan rockets, which weigh up to 500 kg, only at military bases and not settlements, but was now responding to Israeli airstrikes days before that killed 13 Lebanese civilians, including nine paramedics.
The Israeli settlements along the Lebanon border were evacuated by Israeli authorities after the start of the war on 8 October.