Iran preserves the right to respond to Damascus consulate attack: Iran’s foreign ministry

TEHRAN: Iran preserves the right to take reciprocal actions against the Israeli attack in Damascus on its consulate, the country’s foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said on Monday, according to state media.

Suspected Israeli warplanes bombed Iran’s embassy in Syria on Monday.

“Tehran will decide on “the type of response and punishment against the aggressor,” Kanaani added.

Read more: Pakistan foreign office condemns attack on Iranian consulate in Syria

Iran’s consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus was flattened on Monday (April 1) in what Syrian and Iranian media described as an Israeli air strike.

Syrian state media said at least six people were killed and several more were injured.

Iranian state media said one of those killed was Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and that Tehran believed he was the target of the attack.

The Syrian foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad, was spotted at the scene of the strike and expressed his condolences, calling the airstrike “unjustified”.

Read more: At least six killed, in Israeli airstrike on Iranian consulate in Damascus

The Iranian ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, who was not injured, said the incident “will not remain without response”.

Israel, which has repeatedly hit Iranian targets during the six-month war in Gaza, declined to comment on the incident, following its usual practice. An Israeli military spokesperson said: “We do not comment on reports in the foreign media.”