Will airstrike on consulate in Syria lead to escalations between Israel and Iran?

Fears of the war in West Asia escalating has risen considerably since Monday (1 April) after the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital of Damascus was hit by an airstrike, carried out reportedly by Israel. At least 11 people have died, including a senior commander in the al-Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), according to Iran.

While Israel has remained mum on the airstrike , Iran has vowed revenge for the airstrike. Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said: “We consider this aggression to have violated all diplomatic norms and international treaties.”

As tensions rise, we take a closer look at what happened and why this could worsen the already volatile situation.

The airstrike

Syria and Iran have accused Israel of carrying out an airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus. The airstrikes, as per Tehran, destroyed the embassy’s consular annex and killed 11 people.

According to Iranian media, Israeli F-35s struck the building with six rockets, almost entirely demolishing it. Syrian state media said the airstrike levelled the Iranian embassy annex. The Syrian defence ministry stated that the attack took place at the Iranian consulate, which is located on the highway in the western Mezzeh district of Damascus, about 5 pm local time.

Syrian air defences shot down some of the missiles they launched, but others made it through and “destroyed the entire building, killing and injuring everyone inside”, the ministry added.

An AFP journalist later said that only the gate of the building was left standing after the attack, with a sign mentioning “the consular section of the embassy of Iran”. Additionally, window panes of buildings within a 500-metre radius had been shattered, and many cars were damaged by the blast.

The Syrian defence ministry later stated that work was underway to recover the bodies and rescue the wounded from beneath the rubble.

As per a BBC report, plumes of smoke and dust was rising from the remains of the collapsed building.

The Iranian ambassador, Hossein Akbari, was quoted as saying that Israeli F-35 fighter jets “brutally targeted my place of residence and the consular section of the embassy, along with Iran’s military attaches”. He added that between five and seven people were killed, including some diplomats.

The casualties

It is yet unclear as to how many people have died in Monday’s airstrikes. There are some reports which state that seven people have died while others have increased the toll to 11. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 11 people — eight Iranians, two Syrians and one Lebanese — were killed in the attack.

Of these 11, at least seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite overseas wing, known as the Quds Force, were killed. Iranian media later confirmed that senior commander Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, Brig-Gen Mohammad Hadi Haji-Rahimi — his deputy — were among the dead.

Zahedi, 63, was in charge of the al-Quds force — the Guards’ clandestine foreign intelligence and paramilitary wing — in Lebanon and Syria. The 63-year-old senior general would have been at the heart of the supply of Iranian-made missiles to Hezbollah, and had had sanctions imposed on him by the US as long ago as 2010, reports The Guardian.

He was also in-charge of Iran’s air force and ground forces, as well as playing a role in crushing protests in Iran in 2019. In fact, Zahedi’s death will be one of the most high-profile Iranians to have been killed by Israel. The Times of Israel further reported that Zahedi’s death was the most significant killing of an IRGC leader since the US assassinated Quds Force chief Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad in January, 2020.

Iran speaks; Israel remains mum

Iran has condemned the Israeli attack, with foreign ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanaan saying that it was a “gross violation of international conventions,” which protect diplomatic missions. He vowed Iran would take “necessary action” against the attack.

Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian also added: “Benjamin Netanyahu has completely lost his mental balance due to the successive failures in Gaza and his failure to achieve his Zionist goals.”

Moreover, Tehran had summoned the Swiss ambassador, as per a New York Times report, after midnight local time and asked to deliver an important message to Washington. Iran stated that as Israel’s ally, the US must answer for their actions.

Many Iranians also took to the streets on Monday and called for retaliation against Israel.

Meanwhile, Israel has chosen to not comment on the airstrike. In the past, however, it has admitted conducting hundreds of sorties against Iran-backed terror groups attempting to gain a foothold in the country over the last decade. Last December, senior IRGC officer Brig Gen Razi Mousavi was killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike in Damascus, drawing Iranian threats of retaliatory action.

Iran-backed Hezbollah also issued a warning to Israel following the airstrike. “Certainly, this crime will not pass without the enemy receiving punishment and revenge,” the Lebanon group said in a statement.

Russia also commented on the strike, condemning the strike. “We strongly condemn this unacceptable attack against the Iranian consular mission in Syria,” Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

Concerns of escalation

Tensions between Iran and Israel have been high ever since the Gaza war broke out last November and there are worries that the ongoing Israel-Hamas war could become a larger conflict if Iran entered it directly.

In fact, ever since the war began, violence between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah on the Israeli-Lebanon boundary has increased. Last Friday, Israeli strikes in Syria killed 53 people, including 38 soldiers and seven members of Hezbollah, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. It was the highest Syrian army toll in Israeli strikes since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, the monitor said.

According to some experts, Israel seems to be testing the resolve of the Iranians. Moreover, some perceive Israel’s move as an indicator of things to come. As BBC reports, the Israelis are seeing if Iran and Hezbollah will push back.

Experts have noted that there will be some kind of response but it won’t be the conventional missiles but some sort of cyber-attack.

Ronen Bergman, a writer for The New York Times Magazine, told CNN that this airstrike was very significant given Zahedi’s high ranking. He made the analogy that this “wasn’t a poke in the eye to Iran but a slap to the face.” He added that the strike would put both Iran and Hezbollah into a dilemma on how to react.

With inputs from agencies