Strikes attributed to Israel hit an upscale neighborhood of Damascus, which also houses embassies and United Nations buildings, on Monday April 1, destroying the Iranian consulate in Syria. On site, an Agence France-Presse correspondent confirmed that the Iranian embassy annex building had been razed by the strike. The Iranian Foreign Ministry condemned the strikes, which killed eight people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH). In a statement carried by Iranian media, the Iranian ambassador claimed that the embassy annex had been targeted by “six missiles fired by F-35 jets.”
Israel has not claimed responsibility for this unprecedented attack on an Iranian diplomatic building in Syria.
The raid, which completely destroyed the Iranian consulate, adjoining the embassy, killed a commander of the Al-Quds Force for Syria and Lebanon, General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, his deputy as well as four members of the guards of the revolution, according to the OSDH and Iranian media. Two Iranian “advisors” were also among those killed, according to the OSDH.
Aged 63, General Zahedi had been a member of the Guards Corps for four decades and had held various senior positions, including within the Quds Force, which is considered the elite Guards unit. It intervenes beyond the borders to, according to Tehran, help Iran’s neighbors and ensure the “stability” of the region against Western interference.
Iran calls for international ‘response’
Since the Gaza war began on October 7, several Iranian “military advisors” have been killed in Syria, including General Sadegh Omidzadeh, head of intelligence for the Quds Force in that country, according to Iranian media. At the end of December, Brigadier General Razi Mousavi, a senior commander of the Quds Force, was killed in a missile strike south of Damascus.
During a call with his Syrian counterpart, the head of Iranian diplomacy, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, considered the attack “as a violation of all international obligations and conventions” and called on the international community to provide “a serious response » to Israeli strikes.
For Mr. Abdollahian, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “has completely lost his mental balance due to the successive failures of the Israeli regime in Gaza and the inability to achieve the ambitious goals of the Zionists.”
In a statement released Monday evening, ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said that “the Islamic Republic of Iran” would “decide on the type of reaction and punishment towards the aggressor.”
“Hossein Akbari, ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Damascus, and his family were not injured during the Israeli attack,” said the Iranian Nour news agency.