By Ali Haideri
The Israeli regime’s latest aggression against Syria, which resulted in the assassination of a senior Iranian military advisor, is a sign of desperation as resistance movements in the region have pushed the regime on the backfoot amid the Gaza war.
On Monday afternoon, Brigadier General Seyyed Razi Mousavi, a senior commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and a military advisor serving in Syria, was assassinated in an airstrike in the vicinity of Sayyeda Zainab in the countryside of Damascus.
Mousavi was a seasoned military advisor and one of the IRGC commanders entrusted with the Syrian file, in charge of providing “logistical support to the axis of resistance in Syria.”
The IRGC statement noted that Mousavi was a “comrade” of Iran’s top anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, the former head of the IRGC Quds Force, who was assassinated in a US airstrike in Iraq in January 2020.
Mousavi had reportedly survived multiple assassination attempts over the past several years.
Last year, Israel’s Channel 14 described Mousavi as the “director of the liaison office between Damascus and Tehran,” showing he had been under the Zionist scanner for a long time.
Hossein Akbari, Iran’s ambassador to Syria, told media persons that three missiles hit his home near Damascus only hours after he had returned from the Iranian embassy.
Akbari stressed that Mousavi held a diplomatic passport and residence and that according to 1961 and 1973 international conventions, his assassination constitutes a blatant crime.
The Iranian envoy also stated that the slain IRGC commander’s place of residence was well known, so the Israeli terror attack did not require extensive intelligence work.
It was not the first such foolhardy act. Earlier in December, the Israeli regime killed two IRGC military advisors, Mohammad Ali Ataee Shoorcheh and Panah Taqizadeh, in an attack in Syria.
Iran maintains an advisory mission in Syria at the request of Damascus to help the Arab country get rid of foreign-backed terrorists who have been fighting the Syrian government since 2011.
The Israeli regime and the US have been hand-in-glove with Daesh and other terrorist groups in Syria, carrying out frequent attacks on forces associated with the Syrian government and its allies.
Iranian reactions
In a message on Monday, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raeisi said the vicious act of assassinating the IRGC military advisor in a missile attack in Syria was yet another sign of the usurping Zionist regime’s “frustration, helplessness and incapacity.”
President Raeisi said the Israeli regime will definitely “pay the price” for its criminal act of killing a senior military advisor of IRGC in the Arab country.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, in his message, also expressed his condolences to Mousavi’s family as well as the Iranian and Syrian nations over the IRGC official’s martyrdom.
“This honorable martyr fought bravely against terrorists for many years alongside Martyr Hajj Qassem Soleimani to ensure the security of Iran and the West Asian region,” the top Iranian diplomat wrote in a post on X, previously Twitter.
“Tel Aviv must await a hard countdown,” he hastened to add, in a stern warning.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan’ani also strongly condemned the Israeli regime’s terrorist act, saying the vicious and cowardly act was “another indication of the terrorist nature of the Israeli regime” and adding that Iran reserves the right to respond to it “in due time and place.”
“Since its sinister existence, the Zionist regime has committed various kinds of crimes by repeatedly and continuously violating international regulations and norms, and today it has also committed a cowardly and aggressive terrorist act,” he noted.
Iranian Defense Ministry Spokesman Brigadier General Reza Talaei-Nik also strongly condemned the Israeli terror attack, saying the crime deserves global condemnation and punishment.
“The Israeli regime should wait for the retribution of its recent terrorist attack. Waiting for the time to pay the price will torture Zionists and their elements to death,” he told a news conference on Tuesday.
He also described the actions of the US and the Zionist regime outside the Gaza Strip as a sign of war-mongering, referring to their recent attacks on resistance movements in Syria and Iraq.
“Surely, the authoritative and intelligent response will be carried out in a way and in a time, place and manner that will not achieve the goals of the Zionist regime in such terrorist operations,” he stated.
On Wednesday, IRGC spokesman Brigadier General Ramezan Sharif said Iran will respond appropriately to the Israeli regime over the assassination of a senior military advisor in Syria.
“Definitely, with the martyrdom of Mousavi, there will be no disruption in our missions to confront the Zionist regime,” the spokesman said.
Resistance movements’ reactions
Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement, in a statement, condemned in the strongest terms the Israeli regime’s assassination of the IRGC official in Syria, describing it as a blatant violation.
“We consider the assassination of Brigadier General Seyyed Razi Mousavi in Syria to be a flagrant and shameless violation, which is off limits,” Hezbollah said in a statement on Monday.
The Lebanese movement added that Mousavi “dedicated decades of his honorable life to support the Islamic resistance in Lebanon and tirelessly helped the resistance and its fighters.”
It described the martyred Iranian commander as a “comrade in arms” of the former commander of the IRGC Quds Force Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, who is widely revered in the region.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance movement also strongly condemned the Israeli assassination, saying the occupying regime should await a decisive response for its cowardly act.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Islamic Jihad said Brigadier General Mousavi “played a pivotal role in supporting regional resistance forces as well as the Palestinian nation, resistance and cause.”
“The occupying regime’s dirty assassination operation proves once again that this criminal regime contaminates the entire region and its only job is to shed the blood [of people] and spread murder and crimes,” the movement said.
“We reiterate that the crimes of the occupying Zionist regime and its encroachment on regional stability and security will lead to its defeat at the hands of resistance forces,” it concluded.
In a separate statement, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) offered condolences to the Iranian nation and Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei over General Mousavi’s martyrdom.
The PFLP statement said the commander “played an important role in supporting the resistance and developing its capabilities.”
Mousavi’s assassination, which was carried out with “direct coordination and participation of the US and the West, shows that the criminal doctrine of the Zionist aggressor regime targets the whole world and region,” the group noted.
“This crime will have no result other than escalating attacks by the resistance against the Zionist regime and its mercenaries in the region,” the PFLP statement noted.
“We will never allow the occupying, criminal and cowardly enemy to feel safe and stable in the region. It must always live in terror and panic and await the next response.”
Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement, in a statement, said the Israeli regime’s assassination of the Iranian military advisor in Syria is a sign of the regime’s “desperation” in the face of setbacks that have suffered at the hands of regional resistance groups amid the regime’s war on Gaza.
“This martyr was one of the warriors of resistance who had spent his life fighting the regional project of the US and the Zionist regime,” said the statement.
A loyal comrade of Gen. Soleimani
The latest Israeli attack is reminiscent of the American attack on General Soleimani four years ago, which was a desperate attempt to change the situation in Iraq in its favor, after a series of failures.
Both IRGC martyrs played an instrumental role in crushing the Daesh terrorist group in Syria and in strengthening the Axis of Resistance. They were also most feared in the Tel Aviv power circles.
A photo of General Soleimani and his loyal aide and confidante has been doing rounds on social media platforms since Monday. A video clip of the IRGC military advisor speaking fondly about General Soleimani has always been shared widely, showing the deep respect they had for each other.
The fatal attack on the IRGC official came amid the Israeli regime’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza and the rise of the Axis of Resistance in confronting the occupying regime.
There have been a string of attacks on US and Israeli interests in the region in recent weeks, including in Syria, as resistance movements regroup to respond to the child-murdering regime.
The Israeli regime has been working to restore its lost deterrence with assassinations, but observers believe that such cowardly acts of terror are unlikely to tip the balance in the regime’s favor.
