Iran says Israel will pay for consulate attack, calls US accountable

Iran assured this Tuesday that Israel will pay for the attack on the consulate in Syria in which 13 people died – seven of them are Iranian military advisors and six Syrian citizens –while blaming Washington, as Tel Aviv's main ally, for the bombing.

The attack occurs in the midst of strong tensions in the Middle East due to the war in Gaza by Israel, a staunch enemy of Iran and with whom it maintains a covert war with cyberattacks, assassinations and sabotage.

“The evil regime (Israel) will be punished by our brave men. We will make them repent of this crime and others like it, with the help of God,” said Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, in a statement.

The highest Iranian authority wished “peace and mercy of God” for those killed in the attack and “curses for the leaders of the oppressive and aggressor regime (Israel)”.

The evil regime (Israel) will be punished by our brave men. We will make them repent of this crime and others like it, with God's help.

The supreme leader's warning came hours after the president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisí, assured that the Israeli attack “will not go unanswered” and pointed directly at Israel for the destruction of the consulate.

“Once again, in a terrorist crime and in flagrant violation of international norms, the dirty hands of the usurping Zionist regime (Israel) were stained with the blood of several generals and officers of our country,” Raisí said in a statement.

“This cowardly crime will not go unanswered,” said the president.

In the attack that destroyed the Iranian consulate building in Damascus yesterday, seven members of the Revolutionary Guard were killed, including the head of the Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon, Brigadier General Mohamed Reza Zahedi, and his second, General Mohamed Hadi Haj Rahimi brigade.

Israel has not claimed responsibility for this action, as is usual in its attacks against Syrian territory.

This is the bloodiest attack against the Iranian military in Syria so far in 2024, where to date eight people have been killed by Israeli bombings, including two generals of the Revolutionary Guard.

The death toll in the attack rose to 13, including seven Iranians and six Syrians, Iranian state media reported on Tuesday. The bodies of seven Iranian revolutionary guards have been recovered from the rubble, as well as the bodies of four Syrians.

Rescue efforts continue to find the lifeless bodies of the other two Syrian c
itizens.

Iran has been a key ally of Damascus in the war in Syria, where Tehran has sent soldiers and military advisers, as well as providing economic and political support to its main ally in the Middle East.

United States Responsibility

In addition to promising revenge against Israel, Iran has sent a message to the United States, through the Swiss ambassador in Tehran, who represents American interests on Iranian soil, in which it holds it responsible for the attack as Israel's main ally.

”In this call (with the Swiss ambassador) the dimensions of the terrorist attack and the crime of the Israeli regime were explained, and the responsibility of the American government was emphasized,” said the Iranian Foreign Minister, Hosein Amir Abdolahian, in X.

“An important message was sent to the American government as an ally of the Zionist regime. The United States must respond,” Abdolahian insisted.

Khamenei's political advisor, Ali Shamkhani, maintained the same position and stated on social media that the United States is “directly responsible whether or not it was aware of the intention to carry out the attack.”

Calls for attacks on Israeli embassies

The toughest Iranian sectors went further than the authorities and called for directly bombing Israeli embassies.

“The Zionist regime (Israel) has launched a military attack against the Iranian consulate in a third country, so, based on the principle of retaliation, attacking the embassies and consulates of the false Israeli regime in any other country is an absolute right of Iran,” wrote the editor of the conservative newspaper Keyhan, Hosein Shariatmadari.

The director of Keyhan is appointed by the supreme leader.

A view shared by Iranian conservative MP Jalal Rashidi Kuchi, who He called for “a decisive and similar response” to the Israeli attack without delay.

“My suggestion is to openly and directly attack one of the diplomatic centers of the Zionists (Israelis) in one of the countries in the region, preferably Azerbaijan,” he wrote on his X account.