Tehran:

Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi on Tuesday condemned Israel’s deadly airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, saying “such a cowardly crime will not go unanswered.”

“After repeated defeats and defeats of the faith and will of the resistance fighters, the Zionist regime included blind assassinations on the agenda of its struggle to save itself,” Lacey said on his office’s website.

“Day after day, we witness the strengthening of the resistance front and the disgust and hatred of free nations towards (Israel’s) illegal nature. This cowardly crime will not go unanswered.”

An airstrike on a five-story annex to the Iranian embassy killed seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which oversees Iran’s overseas military operations.

Among the dead were Brigadier Generals Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Brigadier General Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, both senior commanders of the Quds Force, the Guard’s overseas operations arm.

Zahedi, 63, has served as unit commander several times during his more than four decades in the Guard.

Israel declined to comment on the attack.

The U.N. Security Council will meet later Tuesday to discuss the deadly attack at the request of Syria’s ally Russia.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations said: “Iran reserves its legitimate and inherent rights under international law and the United Nations Charter to respond decisively to such reprehensible behavior.”

It warned that the attack could “potentially spark more conflicts involving other countries” and called on the Security Council to “condemn this unjustified and criminal act”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)