Iran, which has so far avoided open conflict with Israel, could be forced to retaliate, raising fears of an escalation, in an escalation that sounds like a provocation to Iran, Israel has dealt a stinging blow to the “axis of resistance.
On Monday, April 1, strikes attributed to the Israeli air force pulverized the Iranian consulate in Damascus, the Syrian capital, killing two commanders of the Quds Force, as well as five other members of the Revolutionary Guards’ branch in charge of external operations.
In the heart of Mazzeh, the Damascus embassy district, all that remains is a pile of rubble and the door of the building that reads “consular section of the Iranian embassy”. Late Monday afternoon, airstrikes completely destroyed the building in the Iranian embassy compound. The diplomatic representation, adorned with a huge portrait of Ghassem Soleimani, the former head of the Quds Force, killed in January 2020 in a US drone strike in Iraq, was closed on the thirteenth day of Nowruz, the traditional holiday celebrating the new year in the Persian calendar.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Tuesday that the strikes “will not go unanswered.” “Day after day, we are witnessing the strengthening of the resistance front and the disgust and hatred of free nations against the illegitimate nature” of Israel, “and this cowardly crime will not go unanswered,” the Iranian president said, condemning an “inhumane, aggressive and despicable act of invasion as a flagrant violation of international regulations.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, for his part, called on “the international community” to provide “a serious response” to these “criminal actions”. His spokesman added that the Islamic Republic will decide what kind of reaction and punishment it will adopt against the Jewish state.
The head of Iranian diplomacy later announced that the chargé d’affaires of Switzerland, which represents the interests of the United States in Iran where it does not have an embassy, had been summoned. “An important message was sent to the U.S. government, since it supports the Zionist entity. America must assume its responsibilities,” the minister stressed, quoted by Iran’s IRNA news agency.