Attack on Iran Embassy in Syria decried
CHINA yesterday condemned deadly airstrikes that destroyed the consular annex at the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, killing two high-level members of Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Iranian and Syrian officials blamed Israel for Monday’s attack, though Israel declined to comment.
Iran vowed a stiff response, with fears of even further violence between Israel and Tehran’s allies amid the Gaza war.
“China condemns the attack,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said, in response to a question from a journalist. “The security of diplomatic institutions cannot be violated, and Syria’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity should be respected.”
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed that Israel would be punished.
“The evil Zionist regime will be punished at the hands of our brave men. We will make them regret this crime and the other ones,” Khamenei said in a message published on his official website.
President Ebrahim Raisi condemned the attack as a “clear violation of international regulations” which “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,” he said on his office’s website.
The strike on the annex killed seven Revolutionary Guards, including two commanders of its Quds Force foreign operations arm, Brigadier Generals Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, Iranian officials said.
Zahedi, 63, had held a succession of commands in the force in a Guards career spanning four-plus decades.
Iran’s ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, told Iranian state TV that the attack “was carried out by F-35 fighter jets” which fired six missiles at the building.
Only the gate of the building was left standing after the attack, with a sign reading “the consular section of the embassy of Iran.”
Windows were shattered within a 500-meter radius and many parked cars were damaged by the blast.
The adjacent facade of the Iranian Embassy is decorated with a large portrait of Qasem Soleimani, a longtime Quds Force chief who was killed in a US drone strike just outside Baghdad airport in January 2020.
Iran’s foreign minister said Israel’s main backer the United States also bore responsibility for the strike, even though an unidentified US official quoted by Axios insisted Washington “had no involvement” or advanced knowledge of it.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations warned the strike could “potentially ignite more conflict involving other nations” and called on the Security Council “to condemn this unjustified criminal act.”
Iran’s allies in the region and beyond voiced support for its position.
The Iraqi foreign ministry condemned the attack as a “flagrant violation of international law” and warned of “more chaos and instability” in the region.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group warned Israel would pay for killing Guards commanders. “This crime will not pass without the enemy receiving punishment and revenge,”
Hezbollah said in a statement.
Russia blamed the Israeli air force for the “unacceptable attack against Iran’s consular mission in Syria.”
Meanwhile, China also condemned a strike in the Gaza Strip that killed seven aid workers who, according to their US-based charity, were delivering desperately needed food aid in the devastated Palestinian territory.
China has been calling for a ceasefire in Gaza since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7.
“China opposes all acts that harm civilians, damage civilian facilities, and violate international law,” Wang said. “We are shocked by the attack on international rescue workers in Gaza and condemn it.
“We express our deep condolences to the victims.”
(AFP)