President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran said on Tuesday that Israel’s airstrikes on an Iranian embassy compound in Damascus, Syria, which killed three top Iranian commanders, will not go unanswered. Government supporters took to the streets and called for retaliation against Israel.
The strike, on part of the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus, killed three Iranian Quds Force generals and four other officers, making it one of the deadliest attacks in the years-long shadow war between Israel and Iran.
Mr Raisi said it was an “inhumane attack in barbaric violation of international law”, in comments reported by Tasnim, a semi-official news agency. He added that it would not go unanswered, but did not elaborate on how Iran might respond.
Iran’s Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, he said in an earlier post on social media site X that Iran had summoned the Swiss ambassador after midnight local time and asked for an important message to be delivered to Washington: That as Israel’s ally, the “United States must answer” for Israel’s actions. Switzerland acts as a proxy for the United States in the absence of diplomatic relations between Tehran and Washington.
A spokesman for Iran’s parliamentary leadership, Seyyed Nezamoldin Mousavi, told Iranian state media that “the appropriate response is a national demand of the Iranian people.”
The strike, on part of the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus, killed three Iranian Quds Force generals and four other officers, making it one of the deadliest attacks in the years-long shadow war between Israel and Iran.
In Washington, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, Adrienne Watson, said “the United States had no involvement in the strike” and “had no prior knowledge of it.”
A US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private communication, said the statement was shared directly with Iran.
In many cities across Iran, including the capital, Tehran, as well as Tabriz and Isfahan, large crowds gathered waving Palestinian and Iranian flags and calling for revenge. “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” ​​chanted crowds in Iran, fists in the air, warning that if Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared jihad against Israel, then “no army can hold us back.”
The strikes in Damascus on Monday coincided with two major holidays in Iran, a Shiite religious holiday celebrating the assassination of Imam Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad and the founder of Shiite Islam. and a national nature day, celebrated by going outdoors on the 13th day of Nowruz, the Iranian new year.
Some government opponents gathered in parks in northern Tehran overnight to continue nature celebrations, including picnics, dancing and singing, until security forces broke them up, videos on social media and BBC Persian showed.
The United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday evening to discuss Israel’s attack. Russia, a close ally of Iran, requested the meeting.
Iran’s ambassador to the UN, Amir Saeed Iravani, said in a letter to the world body that the attack on diplomatic buildings was a violation of international law and the UN Charter and a threat to peace and stability in the region.
It remained unclear what steps Iran would take in response to Israel’s strikes: whether it would directly target Israel in a military strike, risking a wider war with Israel and the United States, or whether it would continue its strategy of fighting through its fighters . supports in the area.
Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shiite militia, said in a statement, according to Iranian state media, that “undoubtedly, this crime will not go unpunished and revenge against the enemy.”
Eric Schmidt contributed to the report.
