Hezbollah, backed by Iran, has warned that Israel would have to pay back for attacking the Iranian consulate in Damascus. The group in a statement has said that it would not allow the crime to pass without the enemy receiving punishment and revenge.
According to Reuters, in the strikes carried out by Israel, several Iranian high-ranked officials were killed including Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). An Israeli military spokesperson said that it would not comment on the incident.
The Iranian government has described the strike as a “flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter, international law and the foundational principle of the inviolability of diplomatic and consular premises.”
Saying the strike was “a significant threat to regional peace and security,” the Iranian mission urged the UN Security Council to condemn the attack and said Tehran reserved the right “to take a decisive response.”
The attack has been opposed by other countries in the region. Saudi Arabia’s foreign affairs ministry later issued a statement on social media platform X, condemning the targeting of the Iranian consulate building in Damascus. “The ministry expresses the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s categorical rejection of targeting diplomatic facilities for any justification, and under any pretext, which is a violation of international diplomatic laws and the rules of diplomatic immunity,” it said.
Other countries like Russia, Iraq, Jordan, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates also condemned the attack.
Analysts have suggested that this may lead to significantly increasing violence in the region with Iranian forces letting loose their proxies in Iraq and Syria, placing American forces in jeopardy again. It can also ask its proxies to escalate the attack on Israel.
The war began on October 7, when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage. Israel responded with an air, land and sea offensive that has killed over 32,000 Palestinians, displaced most of the territory’s population and driven a third of its residents to the brink of famine.
