Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Wednesday that Israel "must be punished and it shall be" for attacking the Iranian embassy compound in Syria.
Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei looks at the coffins of members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who were killed in the Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy complex in the Syrian capital Damascus, during a funeral ceremony in Tehran, April 4, 2024. Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via Reuters
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Wednesday that Israel "must be punished and it shall be" for attacking the Iranian embassy compound in Syria.
In a major escalation of Israel's war with regional adversaries, suspected Israeli warplanes bombed Iran's consulate in the Syrian capital on April 1 in a strike that Iran said killed seven military advisers.
"When they attack the consulate, it is as if they have attacked our soil," Khamenei said in a speech marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. "The evil regime made a mistake and must be punished and it shall be," he added.
In an apparent response to Khamenei, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that Israel will respond if Iran attacks Israel from its own soil.
"If Iran attacks from its own territory, Israel will respond and attack in Iran," Katz said in post on the social media platform X.
Iran backs groups that have entered the fray across the region since Israel launched its invasion of Gaza following the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel by Hamas.
The Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah group has exchanged fire on a daily basis with Israel, while Iraqi groups have fired on U.S. forces in Syria and Iraq and the Houthis of Yemen have targeted shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Andrew Heavens
As Hezbollah's war with Israel escalates and Lebanon descends deeper into crisis, one regional actor has made its position unmistakably clear: Syria under Ahmed al-Sharaa is not Bashar al-Assad's Syria, and Hezbollah should not mistake the two.
Israel has rebuffed a historic offer of direct talks from Lebanon, deeming it too little too late from a government that shares its goal of disarming Hezbollah but cannot act against the heavily armed Lebanese group without risking a civil war.
A French soldier was killed and six others wounded Thursday evening in a drone attack in the Erbil region of Iraqi Kurdistan, marking the first French military death since the outbreak of the Middle East war.
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