Iran’s foreign minister claims US gave Israel “green light” to assault Syria

Iran’s foreign minister said that the United States allowed Israel to attack Iran’s consulate in Syria, which led to the deaths of seven Iranian military officials, including two generals.

Hossein Amirabdollahian said that Iran will retaliate to the attack, which many people think Israel did. This shows that Israel is increasing its attacks on Iranian military officials. Iran supports groups that fight against Israel in Gaza and Lebanon.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah repeated on Monday that his group supports Iran’s military action in response to the attack that killed General. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a high-ranking military leader in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force, increased worries about the war spreading to other parts of the Middle East.

Since the fighting in Gaza started six months ago, there have been more conflicts between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. It was Hamas, the group in charge of Gaza, that attacked Israel in October. 7 is also supported by Iran and a group of fighters from Iraq who want to attack US military bases and locations in Syria and Iraq.

Israel often attacks Iranian military leaders and supporters, but Zahedi’s death was the biggest loss for Tehran since a US drone killed Gen. Qassim Soleimani was killed in 2020 in Baghdad.

“I want to say loudly from here in Damascus that America is responsible for what happened and should be held accountable,” Amirabdollahian said to reporters in Damascus when he met with the Syrian Foreign Minister, Faisal Mekdad, who also criticized the attack and Israel’s actions in Gaza. Amirabdollahian also talked with President Bashar Assad about Gaza and the situation in the region, according to a statement from Assad’s office.

The foreign minister of Iran said that the US and two European countries did not criticize the attack on the new consular section, which he had just opened earlier that day.

He said that not speaking out against the attack shows that the US allowed Israel to do this.

The Biden government is saying they did not know about the airstrike before it happened. Washington is very important for Israel’s military support.

Israel usually doesn’t admit when it attacks Iranian targets. They did not say anything about the strike in the Syrian capital. But, a spokesperson for the Pentagon named Sabrina Singh said the US believes Israel was responsible.

At first, Iranian state media said Zahedi was in charge of the Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria until 2016 after the attacks.

Then, in a speech to the public on Monday, the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, said that Zahedi was an important person for the Lebanese group, and had worked there for three four-year periods.

Nasrallah, Syria and other important friends of Iran have said they will continue to support Iran.

Iran has the right to do it because it is natural. “It’s normal for the Islamic Republic to react to the attack on the consulate,” Nasrallah stated.

Nasrallah said that Zahedi was involved until 2002, when he supervised Israel’s pullout from southern Lebanon and supported Hezbollah’s growth. During Zahedi’s second term, there was a lot of intense fighting in Syria. Iran and Russia supported Assad in the war against the opposing forces. Zahedi started his last job in 2020 and it ended when he was killed.

Hezbollah fighters and Israeli soldiers have been fighting on the tense border between Lebanon and Israel since October. On the 8th day after the Hamas attack on southern Israel.

The leader of Hezbollah said that when the fighting started, Zahedi tried to join their fighters on the front line, but he was not allowed to.

On Monday, Israel bombed southern Lebanon and killed Ali Ahmad Hussein, a top commander of Hezbollah’s secret Radwan Force. Hezbollah said Hussein died, but didn’t say how or what he did for the group, which is how they usually tell people when their members die.

Hussein was killed, he was a top fighter, before the Iranian foreign minister visited Syria.

Israel sees Hezbollah as its biggest and most dangerous enemy right now. They think that Hezbollah has about 150,000 rockets and missiles, some of which are very accurate and can be aimed at any part of Israel. The group has many experienced fighters from the 12-year war in Syria, and they also have various military drones.

In January, Israeli planes attacked and killed a top Hezbollah commander, Wissam al-Tawil, who had been fighting with the group for a long time and took part in some of its major battles.

Hezbollah says it will stop shooting rockets when the fighting in Gaza stops and the war between Israel and Hamas is over. Israeli leaders want the Radwan Force to leave the border area so that many Israelis who had to leave can come back home.

Washington and Paris are working hard to find a peaceful solution to stop the fighting between Lebanon and Israel. They want to avoid another big war between Hezbollah and Israel like the one in 2006.

The chance of war spreading to Lebanon has made the political tension between Hezbollah and their rival, Lebanese Forces party, even worse.

On Monday, things got worse when the Lebanese military said that a local leader of the Lebanese Forces was killed. He had been kidnapped the day before in northern Lebanon. The Lebanese Army caught three Syrians who are accused of kidnapping and killing Pascale Suleiman while they were trying to steal his car.

The Lebanese Forces party questioned the army‘s findings and said they thought it was a political murder.

In his speech, Nasrallah criticized members of the Christian party and other allies who accused Hezbollah of being involved in the kidnapping. Describing it as “unfounded” and harmful language.