Iran’s Revolutionary Guards says seven of its officers were killed by an Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate building in the Syrian capital of Damascus.
Although facts are still in doubt and Israel has said it has no comment, it appears there was some kind of high-level meeting going on inside the building at the time of the explosion.
Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander of the Quds Force, and Brigadier General Mohammad Hadi Haji-Rahimi, his deputy, were identified among the dead.
The Iran’s Revolutionary Guards is made up of five groups, created after Iran’s 1979 revolution to protect the new Islamic regime. A powerful paramilitary organization, it supports terrorists in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestinians, Syria, and Yemen, and it controls a large part of the Iranian economy, which funds its existence. U.S. sanctions, declaring it a terrorist organization in 2019, have not been effective in slowing it down. The guard is now deeply embroiled in the Israel-Hamas conflict, which began on Oct. 7, when Hamas raided Israel, killing thousands and kidnapping hundreds of civilians.
“In the Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate on Monday afternoon, seven Iranian military advisors were martyred,” the Tehran Times reported, saying the fighter jets came from the Golan Heights in Israel.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said the “barbaric” attack on the Iranian consulate openly violates international regulations, especially the 1961 Vienna Convention. The Iranian government said it will decide how to “punish” Israel.
Others pointed out that Iran, an exporter of terror, has a history of attacking embassies.
“Is there a more perfect example of chutzpah than Iran, which stormed the US embassy in Tehran and held 50+ Americans hostage for 444 days, complaining about Israel bombing one of their fake diplomatic facilities?” asked writer Noah Pollack, who writes for the Free Beacon.
Pollack was referring to Nov. 4, 1979, when Iranians seized the embassy and detained more than 50 Americans. That occurred during the Democratic term of President Jimmy Carter. The hostages were released when America voted for Ronald Reagan for president. The hostages were released Jan. 20, 1981, just minutes after Reagan was sworn in.
Richard Medhurst, an independent British journalist who was born in Damascus, wrote an opposing point of view: “These f[expletive deleted] lunatic israelis just bombed the Iranian embassy in Damascus Unbelievable violation of the Vienna convention and Syria and Iran’s sovereignty. Israel is a cancer to the Middle East.”
