Iran’s foreign minister on Monday inaugurated the country’s new consulate in Damascus, a week after a deadly attack blamed on Israel destroyed the former consulate, causing a sharp rise in regional tensions.
Tehran, a key ally of Damascus, has vowed to retaliate against an airstrike on the consular section of the Iranian embassy last Monday that killed seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including two generals.
The attack comes against the backdrop of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, which began when the Iranian-backed Palestinian militant group launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7.
Damascus and Tehran blamed Israel for last Monday’s attack, but Israel has not commented.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Amir-Abdullahian inaugurated the new consular department in a building in Damascus in the presence of his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad, state news agency SANA reported. He also met with the Syrian foreign minister earlier on Monday.
An AFP reporter who attended the inauguration said the new consulate was not far from a building destroyed by the strike in the upscale Maze district, which also houses other foreign embassies and United Nations offices.
Amir-Abdullahian will also meet President Bashar al-Assad, with Syria’s pro-government newspaper The National saying his talks in Damascus would “mainly focus” on the fallout from last week’s attacks.
Iran’s foreign minister, who has long served as a mediator between Tehran and the West, began a regional tour in Oman on Sunday, with Muscat calling for a de-escalation of tensions.
An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader warned on Sunday that the Israeli embassy was “no longer safe” following the Damascus attack.
Analysts viewed the attack as an escalation of Israel’s campaign against Iran and its regional proxies, potentially sparking a broader war between Israel and Hamas beyond their conflict in the Gaza Strip.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the consulate attack killed 16 people: eight Iranians, five Syrians, a member of the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group and two civilians.
The dead included Generals Mohammad Reza Zahedi and General Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, both senior commanders of the Quds Force, the overseas operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes in Syria since the civil war broke out 13 years ago, targeting Iranian-backed forces including Hezbollah as well as Syrian army positions and weapons depots.
It rarely comments on individual attacks, but Israeli attacks have increased since the Gaza war began.
Tehran supports Palestinian militant group Hamas but denies direct involvement in the group’s Oct. 7 attack, which triggered massive Israeli retaliation in Gaza.
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