By Syed Zafar Mehdi
Definitive revenge is what Iran has vowed and it doesn’t seem a far-fetched idea or a figment of imagination. When and in which form and shape the retaliatory action will come, the jury is still out on that.
What is certain is that it is payback time for the aggressor, an illegitimate and rogue offspring of the Western hegemony. It simply cannot get away with its foolhardy and reckless military adventurism.
It’s been a week since the Israeli genocidal regime, after suffering a disgraceful drubbing in Gaza, lobbed half a dozen missiles at the consular affairs building of the Iranian embassy in Damascus.
The dastardly attack led to the assassination of seven Iranian military advisors, including a senior Islamic Revolution Guard Corps commander, who were in Syria at the invitation of the Syrian government.
It wasn’t the first time the Tel Aviv regime demonstrated brazen disdain for international law. Attacks on diplomats or diplomatic facilities are considered illegal under the Vienna Convention of 1961.
But, rogue regimes cannot be expected to understand the nuances of law and regulations governing international affairs. They believe the veto-wielding powers would always come to their rescue.
The aim of the strike on Iran’s diplomatic mission in Syria was to deflect attention from the regime’s defeat in Gaza, where it has failed to achieve any of its military goals after six months of unchecked aggression, which has earned it the wrath of both Zionist settlers and pro-Palestine activists.
In what political and strategic affairs pundits were quick to point out, it was a foolhardy, imprudent and badly timed gamble that only an illegitimate and criminal regime shaken to the core can dabble with.
After 186 days of genocidal war on Gaza, it’s pretty clear that Benjamin Netanyahu’s regime is lying on the deathbed, struggling to stay afloat, with signs of life fading away at a dizzying pace.
Billions of dollars of military aid from the United States proved futile. The powerful pro-Zionist lobbies in the West also could do little to prevent the regime in Tel Aviv from slipping into the abyss.
“We Will Make Them Regret”
Here is how the Leader and Iranian officials reacted to the Israeli terror attack on the country’s consulate in Damascus. pic.twitter.com/PmgBGwcdAU
— Press TV 🔻 (@PressTV) April 8, 2024
Internally, settlers have upped the ante in recent months, giving the embattled premier sleepless nights. At the same time, the Axis of Resistance – which stretches from Syria to Yemen to Lebanon to Iraq – has never been more united and determined to put an end to the farce of this illegal occupation.
Despite murdering more than 33,200 Palestinians, including 75 percent children and women, in the past 185 days, and spawning the worst humanitarian catastrophe in modern history, Israel has failed to achieve any of its military objectives in Gaza.
Hamas resistance movement is not only intact after six months of no-holds-barred genocidal onslaught on the coastal Palestinian territory but it continues to spring up surprises for the apartheid regime.
What they did on October 7 last year was unprecedented in many ways, effectively debunking the fallacy of the Israeli regime’s military and intelligence invincibility. The Al-Aqsa Storm Operation, by all means, marked the beginning of the end of this regime.
Over the past six months, resistance groups in Gaza as well as the occupied West Bank have inflicted heavy blows on the regime with their daily military operations, killing the occupation soldiers and destroying the occupation tanks, drones and other sophisticated weaponry.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has been unapologetic about supporting these resistance operations but hasn’t involved itself directly. It has used its diplomatic channels to call for a ceasefire.
At the same time, Iran believes the Palestinian resistance is capable of taking on the Israeli military without external help. They are not the stone-pelting force anymore. They have the most advanced weapons and the technological prowess to give the occupying regime a taste of its own medicine.
The events since October 7 have amply demonstrated that the resistance has an upper hand and the Israeli occupation cannot survive even a day without the life support provided by Washington.
Even in the United States, taxpayers are not hiding their exasperation at the Biden administration’s support for the Israeli genocide in Gaza. It has even failed to condemn the attack in Damascus.
Soon after the attack, Americans conveyed a message to Iran that they were not involved in the strike on the Iranian diplomatic mission in Syria. But not condemning the attack makes it complicit.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, at a joint presser with his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad in Damascus on Monday, unequivocally held the US responsible for Israeli terrorism.
He said the Damascus terror attack was carried out with American warplanes and missiles while asserting that the rogue regime in Tel Aviv “will be punished” for it.
Earlier, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raeisi also vowed a decisive response over the assassination of seven Iranian military advisors in Syria.
The regime in Tel Aviv, the Leader said last week, will “receive a slap” for its crimes and the Iranian armed forces will “make it regret the crime” committed in Damascus and other such crimes.
Leader’s words are always measured and calculated. It was a sign of things to come.
President Raeisi, in his remarks on the eve of International Quds Day, said the “brave men of the resistance front will punish” the regime, adding that the attack on the consulate building in Syria smacked of “frustration and helplessness” of the Israeli regime.
IRGC commander General Hossein Salami also echoed the same warning in his International Quds Day address at the University of Tehran, where Palestinian Islamic Jihad head Ziad al-Nakhaleh also delivered a powerful speech.
All these statements and warnings carry weight. And that’s why the regime has reportedly emptied its embassies and consulates in many countries in recent days, and instructed staffers to go into hiding.
That, however, won’t save it. Its days are numbered and any day could be the last. The imprudence behind the Damascus attack comes with a cost. And that cost is very heavy.
