2023-12-26 15:13:28
Iran has once more threatened Israel with retaliation following the death of an Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) general in Syria.
Iranian Defense Ministry spokesman Reza Talaei-Nik threatened Israel on Tuesday, according to the Tasnim news agency: “The Zionists (Israel) must prepare for the consequences of their crime… and they will be painful.” With the attack, Israel not only violated Syria’s territorial integrity, but also further escalated the already tense situation.
IRGC General Sejed-Rasi Mousavi was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus on Monday. According to information from the New York Times, he is said to have helped oversee the delivery of rockets and other weapons to the Lebanese Hezbollah militia.
Meanwhile, Israel issued a strong warning to the Iran-aligned Hezbollah in Lebanon. “We are hitting Hezbollah very hard – it has lost around 150 fighters, its infrastructure is damaged, it has been pushed back far from the border and the (Israeli) Air Force is flying unhindered over Lebanon. We will step up our efforts,” said Israel’s Defense Minister Joav Gallant on Monday evening.
Israel regularly attacks targets in Syria to prevent Iran from further expanding its military influence there with the help of militias. Both Lebanon and Syria are neighboring countries of Israel. That is why Israel feels threatened by the rocket arsenals of Hezbollah and other militias. Since the Gaza war began on October 7th, tensions have escalated, especially on the Lebanese-Israeli border.
The Israeli military said on Monday evening that it does not comment on foreign media reports. The New York Times wrote that Israeli officials admitted that they were preparing for possible Iranian retaliation.
Iran, along with Russia, is the most important ally of the Syrian government under ruler Bashar al-Assad. For Tehran, Syria is part of the so-called “Axis of Resistance” in the fight once morest Israel, alongside the Shiite organization Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The leadership in Tehran always states that IRGC personnel in Syria only work as military advisors and are not directly involved in the civil war there. According to US intelligence information, Iran also supports the Houthi rebels in Yemen and militias in Iraq.
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