Iran\u2019s foreign minister inaugurated the country\u2019s new consulate in Damascus on Monday, a week after a deadly strike blamed on Israel destroyed the former premises, sending regional tensions skyrocketing. Tehran, a key Damascus ally, has vowed to avenge last Monday\u2019s air strike on the Iranian embassy\u2019s consular section that killed seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members, including two generals. The strike came against the backdrop of Israel and Hamas\u2019s ongoing fighting, which began with the group\u2019s October 7 attack on Israel. Damascus and Tehran blame Israel for last Monday\u2019s raid, but it has not commented. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian inaugurated the new consular section in a Damascus building in the presence of his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad, whom he also met earlier on Monday, state news agency SANA said. An AFP correspondent at the inauguration said the new consulate was not far from the premises destroyed by the strike in the upscale Mazzeh area, which also houses other foreign embassies and UN offices. Amir-Abdollahian was also set to meet President Bashar al-Assad, and Syria\u2019s pro-government newspaper Al-Watan said his talks in Damascus would be \u201cmainly focused\u201d on repercussions of last week\u2019s strike. Iran\u2019s foreign minister began a regional tour Sunday in Oman, long a mediator between Tehran and the West, where Muscat\u2019s foreign minister called for de-escalation. An adviser to Iran\u2019s supreme leader warned on Sunday that Israeli embassies were \u201cno longer safe\u201d after the Damascus attack. Analysts saw the raid as an escalation of Israel\u2019s campaign against Iran and its regional proxies that runs the risk of triggering a wider war beyond the Israel-Hamas fighting in the Gaza Strip. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said 16 people were killed in the consulate strike: eight Iranians, five Syrians, one member of Lebanon\u2019s Hezbollah militant group and two civilians. Among the dead were generals Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, both senior commanders in the Quds Force, the IRGC\u2019s foreign operations arm. Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes in Syria since civil war broke out 13 years ago, targeting Iran-backed forces, including Hezbollah as well as Syrian army positions and weapons depots. It rarely comments on individual strikes, but Israel\u2019s raids have increased since the Gaza fighting began. Tehran backs Hamas but has denied any direct involvement in the group\u2019s October 7 attack, which sparked massive Israeli retaliation in Gaza.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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