April 1, 2024
An Israeli
airstrike on Monday in the Syrian capital of Damascus destroyed the consular
section of Iran’s embassy killing two senior generals of Iran’s Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) and at least five other people. The attack is a
flagrant act of war, undoubtedly discussed with Washington, aimed at provoking
a wider conflict throughout the Middle East with Iran and its allies.
Israel has long
conducted naked acts of aggression in Lebanon, Syria and the region more
broadly in obvious breach of international law. Over the past six months, it
has stepped up its airstrikes in both Lebanon and Syria, killing Hamas and
Hezbollah leaders and also top IRGC generals. However, the strike yesterday was
the first time that Israel has directly attacked Iranian territory—as
consulates and embassies in a foreign country are designated by international
convention.
Those killed in
the strike included General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a military adviser who led
the IRGC’s international arm, the Quds Force, in Lebanon and Syria until 2016.
The attack, which levelled the consulate, also reportedly killed Zahedi’s
deputy, General Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi and General Hossein Amirollah, the
chief of general staff for the Quds force in Syria and Lebanon.
The UK-based
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 11 people were killed in the
airstrike. The dead included diplomats as well as military advisers. Others
were injured, including two Syrian police guarding the embassy. Tehran’s
ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, whose residence is in the consular section
of the Iranian embassy, survived.
The attack has
been denounced by Syria and Iran. Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad
“strongly condemned” the strike, adding that “the Israeli occupation entity
will not be able to impact ties between Iran and Syria.” Iranian Foreign
Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian declared: that “We consider this aggression
to have violated all diplomatic norms and international treaties.”
Iran’s
ambassador Akbari branded the strike as a “heinous act” carried out by Israeli
F-35 fighter jets that launched six missiles. “For the first time, the Zionist
regime dared to target an official building of the Islamic Republic’s embassy
carrying Iran’s flag,” he said, adding that Iran’s response would be delivered
“at the appropriate time and place” and “at the same magnitude and harshness.”
Israel, which
rarely comments on such attacks, has issued no statement, but there is no doubt
that it carried out the strike—it being the only country with both the motive
and the means for doing so, other than its backer, the United States. Asked
whether Washington had been informed of Israel’s plan to attack the consulate,
Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh declined to comment.
For Israel not
to discuss a strike with the US that threatens to dramatically escalate war
throughout the Middle East is hard to believe. Indeed, there are strong
indications that a wider conflict was closely discussed when Israeli Defence
Minister Yoav Gallant met with US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin last week in
the US. Prior to the talks, Gallant indicated that he would be discussing
Israel’s “ability to obtain platforms and munitions” as well as the opening of
a new war front in southern Lebanon against Iranian-backed Hezbollah.
In the aftermath
of those talk, the US authorised a new arms shipment, effectively giving Israel
the green light not only for a barbaric assault on the city of Rafah in Gaza
housing some 1.5 million Palestinians, but also for a wider regional conflict.
The arms include 1,800 massive 2,000-pound bombs capable of levelling entire
city blocks and inflicting huge casualties.
Asked about the
delivery of the devastating ordnance to Israel, a US State Department
spokesperson justified the decision by declaring that the Israelis needed “to
have the ability to defend themselves against a very well-armed adversary… like
Iran, Hezbollah…” Having justified the genocidal war in Gaza on the absurd
pretext of Israel’s right to defend itself, the US is handing Israel the
weaponry needed to wage war on Iran on the same basis.
Yesterday’s
attack on the Iranian consulate and the killing of senior Iranian generals are
calculated to force Tehran to respond. Any response by Iran will be branded as
“Iranian aggression” and seized on by Israel, the US and its allies as the
pretext for further aggression against Tehran and its allies. Along with
Israel, the US is already engaged in a conflict with Iranian-linked Houthi
militia in Yemen and conducted air strikes in Iraq and Syria in February
following the killing of three American troops in a US outpost in Jordan.
Israel has
already killed Iranian military advisers in Syria in a series of attacks,
including top IRGC general Seyed Razi Mousavi in an airstrike in a Damascus
neighborhood in December. At least three Israeli strikes this year have been
aimed against Iran, including one in January in Damascus that killed at least
five advisers and another last week in Deir el-Zour near the Iraqi border that
killed one adviser.
Over the past
week, Israel has intensified its attacks inside Syria, including airstrikes
against targets in and around the city of Aleppo. The Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights (SOHR) said the Aleppo attack had led to the highest number of
dead, 36, among Syrian forces in a single such Israeli attack. It also said six
Hezbollah fighters were killed.
The Israeli
military last month reported that it had struck more than 4,500 Hezbollah
targets in Syria and Lebanon since the beginning of the Israeli war on Gaza. It
claimed to have killed over 300 Hezbollah members. While many of the strikes
have been in southern Lebanon in the escalating conflict between Hezbollah and
Israel that is transforming the border area into a war zone, Israeli warplanes
have also hit sites deep inside northern Lebanon.
The latest
airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus is, however, far more
consequential. An article on the attack in the Financial Times (FT) pointed out
that Iran has sought to avoid a conflict with the US and Israel and to rein in
allied militia. Far from backing off, Israel has sought to take advantage of
the situation to escalate the wider conflict.
“Israel believes
that Iran is effectively deterred, and is willing to risk a war in order to
degrade significantly Iran and Hizbollah,” said Emile Hokayem, senior fellow at
the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told the FT. “This
calculation will work until it will not, and then it will be catastrophic,” he
warned.
In reality, it
is not just Israel, but US imperialism, which has backed Israel politically,
financially and militarily to the hilt, that is seeking to provoke a
catastrophic conflict against Iran. Already engaged in an expanding war with
nuclear-armed Russia in Ukraine and advanced preparations for war with China,
the US regards control of the Middle East as a critical element of the
developing global conflict and Iran as the key obstacle that must be removed.
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