Attack on Iranian consulate in Damascus ‘another blow for Iran’: AJ correspondent
Reporting from Beirut
Syrian state television and Iranian media are
reporting that the Iranian consulate was the target of an apparent Israeli
strike in the heart of Damascus. Videos from the Syrian capital show a
building, right next to the consulate, completely destroyed, and also show an
Iranian flag.
So, this in itself is very significant and could have
serious implications – targeting a diplomatic mission, which is supposed to be
protected under international law.
Now, Iranian state television is saying that diplomats
were killed in that strike, but security sources have been quoted as saying
that a top-ranking Quds Force commander, Mohammad Reza Zahedi, was killed in
that strike.
He won’t be the first Iranian commander or general to
have been killed in recent months. Israel has carried out numerous
assassinations in recent months, targeting Iranian commanders as well as those
commanders allied with Iran.
But no doubt, the location, the fact that the Syrian
state media and Iranian media are saying that a diplomatic mission was targeted
… this was another blow for Iran.
Israel trying to ‘drag’ Iran into a regional war,
analyst says
Ali Vaez, director of the International Crisis Group’s
Iran Project, says Israel’s alleged attack on Iran’s consulate in Syria is
“akin to targeting another country on its own soil”.
“Overall, this seems to still be a low-simmer regional
war. It’s not yet an all-out regional conflict, but it does appear that Israel
is trying to do everything in its power to expand the conflict,” Vaez told Al
Jazeera.
“[This] puts Israel in a win-win situation because
Israel knows Iran doesn’t want to get dragged into a regional war, so if it
escalates its attacks against Iranian assets and personnel in Syria, it
probably will be cost free, and if Iran does respond and retaliate, then it
becomes a justified pretext for expanding the war.”
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