DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) – Iran’s foreign minister on Monday accused the United States of giving Israel the “green light” for an attack on its consulate in Syria that killed seven Iranian military personnel, including two generals.
President Hossein Amirabdollahian reiterated Tehran’s pledge that Iran would respond to the attack, which has been widely blamed on Israel. The attack appears to mark an escalation in Israel’s targeting of Iranian military personnel who support militants fighting Israel in the Gaza Strip and along the border with Lebanon.
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In a speech on Monday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah reiterated the Iranian-backed group’s support for Tehran’s military response to the attack that killed General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a military official in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Quds Force. This exacerbated concerns about an escalation of war. to the rest of the Middle East.
Iran’s foreign minister has accused the United States of giving Israel the “green light” for an attack on its consulate in Syria that killed seven Iranian military personnel. (Michael Gruber/Getty Images)
Since the war in Gaza began six months ago, clashes have increased between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Hamas, which controls Gaza and attacked Israel on October 7, supports Iran as well as an umbrella group of Iraqi militias that target US military bases and strongholds in Syria and Iraq.
Israel regularly carries out attacks targeting Iranian military officials and allies, but Zahedi’s death comes after a U.S. drone targeted Quds Force commander General Qassim Soleimani in Baghdad in 2020. It was the most serious blow to Iran since the killing of the terrorists.
“Here in Damascus, I say very loudly that the United States is responsible for what happened,” Amirabdollahian told reporters in Damascus, where he met with his visiting Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad. I want to say that we have to take responsibility.” He condemned both the Gaza attack and the Israeli attack. Amirabdollahian also met with President Bashar al-Assad and discussed the broader situation in Gaza and the region, according to a statement from Assad’s presidential palace.
Earlier in the day, Iran’s foreign minister began opening a new consulate in a nearby building, justifying his claim by saying that Washington and “two European countries” did not condemn the attack on the diplomatic post.
He said the failure to condemn the attack “shows that the U.S. government gave Israel permission to commit this crime.”
The Biden administration maintains it had no prior knowledge of the airstrike. Washington is an important military ally of Israel.
Israel, which rarely acknowledges attacks on Iranian targets, said it would not comment on the attack in the Syrian capital. But Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said last week that the United States assesses that Israel is responsible.
Immediately after the attack, Iranian state media initially reported that Zahedi had led the Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria until 2016.
Later, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech on Monday that Zahedi was a key figure in the Lebanese group and had served three four-year terms in the small Mediterranean country.
Nasrallah said he remains committed to supporting Iran, as well as Syria and Tehran’s other key allies.
Prime Minister Nasrallah said, “This is Iran’s natural right. It is natural for the Islamic Republic to respond (to the attack on the consulate).”
Nasrallah said Zahedi’s first involvement was through 2002, when he oversaw Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon and helped Hezbollah expand. Zahedi’s second term featured some of the fiercest fighting in Syria’s rebellion that turned into a civil war, where Tehran and Russia played key roles in supporting Assad against the rebels. Zahedi’s last mission began in 2020 and ended with him being killed.
Hezbollah militants and Israeli forces have been clashing along the tense Lebanon-Israel border since October 8, a day after Hamas attacked southern Israel.
Hezbollah leaders said that at the moment the clashes began, Zahedi wanted to join Hezbollah militants on the front lines, but was told he was not allowed.
Early Monday morning, an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon killed Ali Ahmad Hussein, the elite commander of Hezbollah’s secret Radwan unit. Hezbollah announced Hussein’s death but, similar to how it publicizes the deaths of its members, did not provide details about the circumstances or his role within the group.
The killing of Hussein, one of the most senior militants ever killed, came ahead of a visit to Syria by Iran’s foreign minister.
Israel considers Hezbollah its most serious immediate threat and estimates that Hezbollah has around 150,000 rockets and missiles, including precision-guided missiles that can strike anywhere in Israel. The group includes thousands of seasoned fighters who fought in Syria’s 12-year civil war, and also has a wide variety of military drones.
In January, Israeli warplanes attacked and killed another elite Hezbollah commander, Wissam al-Tawil of Radwan’s forces. He had been fighting Hezbollah for decades, participating in some of its biggest battles.
Hezbollah has said it will stop firing rockets once a ceasefire is reached in the Gaza Strip to end the Israel-Hamas war. Israeli authorities have demanded that Radwan’s forces withdraw from the border area so that tens of thousands of displaced people can return home.
Washington and Paris have made diplomatic efforts to stop fighting along the Lebanese-Israeli border in hopes of preventing a new all-out war between Hezbollah and Israel since the month-long war in summer 2006. We are working hard to find a solution.
The threat of war spreading to Lebanon has exacerbated existing political tensions in the country between Hezbollah and its most vocal opponent, the nationalist Christian Lebanese Army party.
The situation worsened on Monday when the Lebanese Army announced the death of a local Lebanese military personnel who had been kidnapped in northern Lebanon the previous day. The Lebanese army announced that it had detained three Syrians accused of kidnapping and killing Pascal Suleiman after they allegedly tried to steal his car.
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Lebanese military officials have questioned the military’s findings and said they believe this was a political assassination.
In his speech, Prime Minister Nasrallah criticized members of the Christian Party and allies who accused Hezbollah of being involved in the kidnappings. He calls it “baseless” and dangerous rhetoric.
