‘They will pay a high price’: Iran demands revenge for attack on its consulate in Syria and US says it ‘had nothing to do with it’

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi spoke with the Iraqi Prime Minister on Wednesday evening. And he assured him of this Israel would pay a “heavy price” for the air attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.

In a speech to the country’s political and military leaders, Iranian religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei directly threatened Israel with retaliation, saying: “The failure of the Zionist regime will undoubtedly continue. Desperate attempts, like the one they made in Syria, they will be of no use to you They will get a slap in the face for this action. By their own actions they have fallen into a trap from which there is no escape. “With each passing day, this regime grows weaker and closer to destruction.”

After the attack in Damascus, in the United States sent an urgent message to Iran. And he said, “We had nothing to do with it.”

Israel said nothing.

The United States remains Israel’s indispensable ally and a tireless arms supplier, responsible for around 70% of Israel’s arms imports and around 15% of Israel’s defense budget, including supplying the type of aircraft and ammunition for advanced weapons that appear to have been used in the attack. . This puts him in the crosshairs of whatever retaliation Iran has in mind. Although he stresses that “it has nothing to do with it”.

Israel does not has acknowledged its involvement in the airstrike (it never does), but Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Tuesday that the U.S. he assessed that Israel was responsible. Several branches of the Iranian government have already warned that they will also hold the United States responsible for the ferocious attack.

U.S. forces in Syria and Iraq are already frequent targets as Iran and its regional allies seek retaliation for Israeli attacks, says Charles Lister, director of the Middle East Institute’s Syria program. U.S. officials have recorded more than 150 attacks by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria against U.S. forces at bases in those countries since the war between Hamas and Israel began on Oct. 7.

The attack on the consulate in Damascus

Just three days after bombing the Syrian city of Aleppo, killing more than 50 people, Israel on Monday bombed the Iranian consulate in an affluent neighborhood of Damascus, the Syrian capital, killing senior officials of the Tehran regime, including a top commander of the the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, according to an Iranian media outlet.

“Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedione of the most senior commanders of the Quds Force, was martyred in an attack by fighters of the Zionist regime on the consulate building of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Damascus,” Iranian state television in Tehran reported.

The Quds Force is the operational arm of the Revolutionary Guards for foreign operations.

The Iranian threat

His speech by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the highest authority in Iran, was greeted with cries of “death to America and death to Israel.”

It is not yet clear whether Tehran will intervene directly against Israel or appeal to its allies in the region, particularly Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Iraq’s Shiite militias and Yemen’s Houthis, who have stepped up their actions against Israel.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army on Thursday it suspended the permits of all its combat unitsamid threats of retaliation from Iran.

“In accordance with the assessment of the situation, it has been decided to temporarily suspend the permits of all IDF (Israel Defense Forces) combat units.. The IDF is at war and the deployment of forces is subject to continuous evaluation as necessary,” the Israeli military said in a statement.

The fear of America

A senior American commander warned bluntly on Wednesday of the danger to American troops.

“What the Iranians have always done for years, when they felt most aggressively attacked by Israel, was not to react against the Israelis, but against the Americans,” seeing them as easy targets in the region, said Charles Lister, director of the Syria program from the Middle East Institute.