By Shabbir Rizvi
On Monday, April 1st, the Israeli regime doubled down on its reputation as a rogue pariah entity by carrying out an airstrike on the consular affairs section of the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital Damascus.
The aerial aggression killed many Iranian military advisors, including a senior commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force Mohammad Reza Zahedi and his deputy Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, among others.
The missile strike was completely illegal in nature and in total breach of Syria’s sovereignty, international conventions, Vienna Conventions and the United Nations Charter – perceived as a formal act of war as the consulate is considered Iranian soil.
Many have correctly assessed that this act of cowardly aggression by the Israeli regime is part of a bigger and more sinister plot, as it could not have happened without knowledge of or approval from Israel’s all-weather ally and partner in crime – the United States.
The Israeli regime is now entering its sixth month of unsuccessfully trying to destroy the Gaza-based Hamas resistance movement and free captives. In the process, it has killed almost 33,000 Palestinian civilians, the majority of them children and women.
The October 7 operation launched by Hamas effectively debunked the fallacy of Israeli military and intelligence invincibility. Every day, Hamas fighters have been destroying sophisticated Israeli tanks and weaponry – and still maintain the ability to launch rockets into Zionist settlements from north Gaza – where Israel claims it has liquidated all Hamas cells.
Much to their dismay, Hamas is alive and doing well. It has only grown in strength and conviction so have other Palestinian resistance groups in the besieged strip.
In fact, not a single Palestinian resistance group in Gaza or the occupied West Bank has been destroyed or weakened in the past six months. All these groups have been posting videos of their successful operations on a daily basis.
All Israel has shown since October 7 is its true genocidal face – killing more than 32,000 Palestinians which has landed it at the International Court of Justice in the Hague as well as a crumbling edifice inside the occupied territories with millions regularly demonstrating against the dying and decaying regime.
Add to that the unprecedented unpopularity of Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu – who is facing growing calls for ouster each day with thousands of Israeli settlers in the streets – which actually started long before the October 7 resistance operation.
Simply put, Israel is facing political, military, and socioeconomic disasters. It desperately needs a win, and due to its incompetence, it cannot achieve that. Which is why it’s poking Iran in such a provocative and dangerous way.
What the regime wants is for Iran to overreact so it can play the victim card and drag the US into another war.
For years, Iran has been thoughtfully strategic and calculated in its response to the Israeli regime’s provocations. No act has gone unanswered, be it disabling Mossad networks, liquidating Mossad/Israeli structures and bases, or releasing sensitive information to its allies about Israeli spies and agents.
Most important of all, it has bolstered the Axis of Resistance, which is a fundamental counterweight in the region to American and Zionist occupation and aggression.
Iran’s methodical steps all these years have allowed it to strengthen its own military capabilities while strengthening the Resistance Axis – and it knows a small move will throw the entire axis into jeopardy.
The beauty of this hugely popular and effective axis is that the more powerful each arm of it grows – from the Palestinian resistance to Iraq to Yemen to Hezbollah and so on – the stronger as a whole they grow.
Israel cannot defeat the Palestinian resistance. It cannot go to war with Hezbollah as it lacks US support. It cannot wage a conventional war with the Iraqi resistance or the Yemeni military.
But what it is gambling on is sparking a war with its longtime adversary – the Islamic Republic of Iran – a country the US has been thirsting for war for decades. Israel hopes to create the right conditions for the US to be forced into a full-blown regional war.
What makes Iran an enemy is its steadfast support for the Palestinian resistance and championing of the Palestinian cause since the Islamic Revolution. Iran has not faltered or compromised on the principles centered around the ideology that led to the Islamic Revolution.
Palestinian resistance also acknowledges that. Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders were in Tehran just last week where they met with the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, President Ebrahim Raeisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and others to discuss the war on Gaza.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement chief Ziyad al-Nakhaleh made several remarks regarding Iran’s support for Palestine, praising Iran for supporting the resistance despite facing sanctions and foreign plots.
Both resistance groups standing tall after months of genocidal war and their praise for Iran for its moral and political support to the Palestinian resistance has surely angered the Tel Aviv regime, which is clearly incapable of achieving any of its stated war goals.
Thus, the fresh and unprecedented Israeli aggression breached the red line – as attacking a foreign consulate in a different country goes against the so-called “Rules Based Order” that America touts, but refuses to follow.
This hypocrisy is especially glaring today. Russia called an emergency UNSC meeting on Tuesday to condemn the Israeli aggression on the Iranian consulate – which the Americans, British, and French envoys refused to do. The April 1 attack lays bare that the rules-based order does not exist for the West and its allies.
China also blasted the aggression: “25 years ago, China’s embassy in Yugoslavia was bombed by a US-led NATO airstrike… we feel the grief and pain of the Iranian government and people.”
Now what remains to be seen is what Iran’s response will be. All options are on the table. Ayatollah Khamenei as well as other prominent figures have vowed a strong and decisive response. It will be on two fronts: political and military.
On the political front, Iran’s UN Ambassador Zahra Ershadi blasted Israel on Wednesday in a UN speech, demanding that countries condemn the aggression that breaks all international norms. Seeing which countries stand up to this blatantly illegal action will set the bar for all future acts of aggression by any country.
If countries do not condemn this now, then they have no leg to stand on should they also be subject to the same kind of unwarranted aggression.
These words from Ambassador Ershadi’s address to the UN should be studied and analyzed carefully:
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has exercised considerable restraint, but it is imperative to acknowledge that there are limits to such forbearance. The occupying regime must bear full responsibility for its consequences,” she stated.
” Iran reserves its legitimate and inherent right under international law and the United Nations Charter to take a decisive response to such reprehensible acts.”
Thus comes the military solution. Iran has vowed retaliation at a time and place of its choosing. And it has had plenty of practice for direct hits against Israeli ships, military apparatuses, and other targets.
Recall earlier this year when the IRGC launched a series of missile attacks striking targets as far as Syria – destroying both Mossad and Daesh targets while sending a clear message to the regime in Tel Aviv.
Iranian intelligence also has the identities of Mossad networks located throughout different countries. A proper retaliation could also be disabling Mossad networks across the globe – sending a clear message that Iran knows more than Israelis imagine.
As international norms were breached, Iran too can also deliver a tit-for-tat blow. There are plenty of Israeli embassies in the region used as spy bases for Zionists to subvert regional stability. Though Iran respects its neighbors’ sovereignty and territorial integrity, new lines have been drawn that require appropriate response.
Then there are members of the Axis of Resistance, from Lebanon to Yemen to Iraq who can deal more blows to the illegitimate regime in Tel Aviv. We saw it just last night as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq struck two vital Israeli military sites, including an airbase.
The coming days – or even weeks – will certainly bring an uneasy feeling to Zionists.
To quote Ayatollah Khamenei: “The evil regime will be punished by our brave men. We will make them regret this crime and other ones, by God’s will.”
The writing is on the wall: punishment is coming, the people of Iran demand it and it will happen.
Shabbir Rizvi is a Chicago-based political analyst with a focus on US internal security and foreign policy.
(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV)
