Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed on Tuesday to avenge an Israeli air strike on Syria that killed senior military officers, according to Iranian media.
“[Israel] will be punished at the hands of our brave men. We will make them regret this crime and the other ones.”
The statement came after Iranian state television reported that the death toll in the attack on the consulate building had risen to 13, including seven Iranians and six Syrian nationals.
Earlier, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi stated that “cowardly crime will not go unanswered.”
Having failed to destroy the will of the resistance front, [Israel] has put blind assassinations back on its agenda to save itself.
Hezbollah, the Iran-affiliated armed group that has been swapping attacks with Israel across the border with Lebanon since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, echoed the warnings, arguing that an attack on Iranian diplomatic premises “will not pass without the enemy receiving punishment and revenge.”
Amid tensions, the UN Security Council is set to discuss the situation at a special meeting at Russia’s request. China condemned the attack, insisting that the security of diplomatic facilities “cannot be violated.” Meanwhile, the EU called on all sides to exercise restraint.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin rebuked his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant during a telephone conversation over Israel’s deadly attack on a humanitarian food convoy in the Gaza Strip earlier this week. Pentagon spokesman Major General Patrick Ryder described the conversation as follows:
“Secretary Austin expressed his outrage at the Israeli strike on a World Central Kitchen humanitarian aid convoy that killed seven aid workers, including an American citizen. Secretary Austin stressed the need to immediately take concrete steps to protect aid workers and Palestinian civilians in Gaza after repeated coordination failures with foreign aid groups.”
Austin stressed to Gallant that Israel’s attack on the humanitarian convoy was making it difficult to deliver much-needed aid to Gaza, which the secretary noted must be increased in the coming days, especially in the northern Gaza Strip, to prevent starvation, according to the Pentagon.
