Iran calls for 'international community response' after Israel's Syria attack

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian called Monday on the international community to act after the Israeli attack on an Iranian consulate in Damascus killed a senior Guards commander and others.

Amir-Abdollahian, in a telephone conversation with his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad, "blamed the consequences of this action on the Zionist regime and stressed the need for a serious response by the international community to such criminal actions", according to a statement by Iran's foreign ministry.

State TV reported that Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, "one of the senior commanders" in the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, "was martyred in an attack by Zionist regime fighters on the Islamic Republic of Iran's consulate building in Damascus."

The 63-year-old joined the Guards more than four decades ago and has held various senior positions.

Amir-Abdollahian described the attack as a violation of all international obligations and conventions.

"Netanyahu has completely lost his mental balance due to the consecutive failures of the Israeli regime in Gaza and not achieving the ambitious goals of the Zionists," Iran's top diplomat added.

He was referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose country has been at war with Iran-backed Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip for almost six months.

In a separate statement, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani "strongly condemned" the attack and said that Iran "reserves the right to carry out a reaction and will decide on the type of response and the punishment of the aggressor."

Earlier, Iran's ambassador in Damascus, Hossein Akbari, said, "the five-storey consulate building was attacked by Israeli F-35 fighter jets and with six missiles." He did not give the source of his information about the aircraft.

Akbari vowed a "decisive response" as the attack killed "at least five people including three military personnel."

In a night-time rally held in Palestine Square in central Tehran on Monday, hundreds of demonstrators, waving flags of Iran and Palestine, called for "revenge" and chanted slogans of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel".

They also burned Israeli and United States flags, according to AFP journalists at the scene.

Iran hailed Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, which triggered the war, as a "success" but denied any direct involvement.

Iran-backed groups in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen have since carried out a series of attacks on Israeli and Western targets.