Israel's attack on Iran's General Consulate in Damascus will not go unanswered, President of the Islamic Republic Ebrahim Raisi has said.
"The Zionist regime [Israel] must bear in mind that it won’t be able to achieve its sinister objectives with such inhumane measures and will have to face the growing strength of the resistance front and also the free nations’ hatred and aversion to its illegitimate nature. This unfair crime won’t go unanswered," he stated, as cited by Tasnim news agency.
On Monday evening, the Syrian Ministry of Defense reported an airstrike by the Israeli Air Force on the General Consulate of Iran in Damascus. The building also housed the residence of the ambassador of the Islamic Republic to the SAR, Hossein Akbari, who was unharmed during the attack. The missile strike completely destroyed the consulate.
According to a statement by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran's elite military unit, seven IRGC officers were killed in the Israeli attack, among them two high-ranking generals-advisors - Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the commander of the IRGC's Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon, and his deputy, Brigadier General Mohammad Hadi Hajizadeh.
In response to Israel's attack, the Iranian Foreign Ministry stated that it "reserves the right" to personally respond to Tel Aviv's airstrike and to determine how "to punish the aggressor."