Tehran faces strategic dilemma after Damascus consulate is targeted by strikes attributed to Israel – Technologist

In an escalation that could only sound like a provocation to Iran, Israel delivered a stinging blow to the “axis of resistance.” On Monday, April 1, strikes attributed to Israel’s air force pulverized the Iranian consulate in Damascus, the Syrian capital, killing two commanders of the Quds Force, as well as five other members of this branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) which is tasked with external operations.

In the heart of Mazzeh, the embassy district of Damascus, all that remained was a pile of rubble and the door of the erstwhile building marked “consular section of the Iranian embassy.” Late on Monday afternoon, airstrikes completely destroyed the building, which is part of the Iranian embassy complex. The diplomatic representation; adorned with a huge portrait of Qassem Soleimani, the former head of the Quds Force who was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq in January 2020, was closed on the occasion of the thirteenth day of Nowruz, the traditional holiday marking the new year in the Persian calendar.

Denouncing the attack as a “violation of all international obligations and conventions,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian called on “the international community” to give “a serious response” to these “criminal actions,” which he attributed to Israel. His spokesman added that Iran would decide on the type of response and punishment it would take against Israel.

The head of Iranian diplomacy then announced that the Swiss chargé d’affaires, who also represents US interests in Iran, where the country has no embassy, had been summoned. “An important message has been sent to the American government since it supports the Zionist entity. America must accept its responsibilities,” said the minister, quoted by the Iranian news agency IRNA.

“By targeting the Iranian consulate in Damascus, which is considered Iranian territory under international law, Israel has backed Iran into a corner. The rules of engagement of the past are now completely obsolete. Not reacting is no longer an option for Tehran,” said Hamidreza Azizi, a researcher at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik research institute in Berlin.

A dangerous precedent

Iran is indeed faced with a dilemma. Retaliation could provoke open conflict with Israel and regional conflagration. This is a scenario that Tehran has been trying to avoid since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, 2023, leaving its allies within the “axis of resistance” – Hezbollah in Lebanon, militias in Iraq and Houthis in Yemen – to attack Israel alone, in support of Hamas in Palestine. Not responding, however, could tarnish Tehran’s reputation within this axis and nullify its deterrent power against Israel, thereby exposing its leaders to further attacks.

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