(HorizonPost.com) – Tehran on Tuesday vowed a response to the airstrike on its consulate in Damascus, Syria on Monday that killed 12 people, including several Iranian officers and a member of Hezbollah, the Associated Press reported.
The airstrike, presumed to have been carried out by Israel, also reportedly killed four Syrians.
In an emergency meeting of the United National Security Council on Tuesday, Iran’s deputy ambassador to the UN Zahra Ershadi said the consulate was destroyed completely and the final death toll was still unknown since people remained trapped beneath the rubble.
Robert Wood, the US deputy ambassador told the Security Council that the United States played no part in Monday’s strike and revealed that the US privately communicated that to Tehran. Wood also said the US could not confirm the details about the strike.
Ershadi attributed the attack to Israel, which she accused of threatening regional and international peace. She declared that the US was responsible for any crime committed by Israel.
Ershadi also boasted that Iran had shown “considerable restraint” against Isreal but warned that Tehran reserved the right to take a “decisive response” to Monday’s airstrike.
Israel rarely acknowledges responsibility for strikes against Iranian targets. While it did not comment on Monday’s airstrike, a spokesman for the IDF said Iran was responsible for a drone strike on a naval base in southern Israel early Monday.
In a meeting late Monday, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council decided on what Iranian state television reported was a “required” response to the strike in Damascus.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared that Iran would “make them regretful about the crime and similar acts.”
Iran claimed that the Quds Force commander Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi and his deputy Gen. Mohammad Hadi Hajriahimi were among those killed in Monday’s strike.
Hezbollah member Hussein Youssef was also killed in the airstrike.
The Iranian-backed group vowed in a statement that the “crime” would not go unpunished but would be avenged.
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