Reactions pour in after Israel’s deadly attack on Iran consulate in Syria

Many regional resistance groups and countries around the world have strongly condemned the Israeli regime’s earlier deadly attack on the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus, calling it a recipe for further escalation.

The Monday attack resulted in the martyrdom of Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), his deputy, and five of their accompanying officers.

Iran’s Ambassador to Damascus Hossein Akbari confirmed that the attack had resulted in the martyrdom of seven people, but said the exact number of the martyrs was yet to be specified.

Reacting to the atrocity, the Gaza Strip-based Palestinian resistance movement of Hamas condemned the attack “in the strongest terms.” It called the attack “a flagrant violation of international law, an encroachment on the sovereignty of both Syria and Iran, and a dangerous Zionist escalation.”

The movement demanded that the United Nations Security Council take “effective” action to stop the regime’s aggression on the region, “which adds fuel to the fire and undermines international stability and security.”

Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement said Martyr Zahedi’s “pure blood will result in more determination to resist and confront the arrogant Israeli enemy.”

It said the Israeli regime would be “foolish” to believe that such assassinations could “stop the roaring tide of peoples’ resistance.”

“This crime will certainly not go without the enemy receiving punishment and revenge.”

The Islamic Jihad, Hamas’ fellow Gaza-based resistance group, called the attack “treacherous.”

“This cowardly Zionist attack is an attempt by the enemy to expand aggression and escape failure in Gaza,” it said, referring to the Israeli regime’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip.

“We affirm that the enemy will continue to fail, and will be defeated on all fronts,” the movement concluded.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the second-largest component of the Palestine Liberation Organization umbrella group, described the attack as “a significant escalation and organized state terrorism.”

“The Zionist entity is intent on dragging the region into significant escalation,” it said, but noted that this would “plunge its citizens into a bloodbath and disasters they cannot bear.”

Fatah al-Intifada, another Palestinian resistance movement, said the Israeli aggression would fail to undermine Tehran’s role and the role of the Axis of Resistance, “which will continue to support the Palestinian people and their resistance in occupied Palestine until Palestine is liberated from the filth of the Zionist enemy.”

Iraq’s Kata’ib Hezbollah anti-terror group extended its condolences to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, referring to the attack as “criminal Zionist-American aggression.”

Hissein Brahim Taha, secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, “strongly” condemned the aggression, expressing solidarity with the people and government of Iran.

Several countries, including Pakistan, Oman, Iraq, and Russia, also denounced the Israeli aggression, with Moscow calling it “unacceptable.”

In Yemen, Ali al-Qahoum, a member of the popular resistance movement Ansarullah’s Political Bureau, said the aggression proved the extent of the Zionist entity’s persistence in committing crimes and violating the sovereignty of the Syrian state.

Saudi Arabia’s ministry of foreign affairs said, “We condemn the targeting of the Iranian consulate building in Damascus and reject the targeting of diplomatic facilities for any justification.”