Iran’s foreign minister again accused the United States of approving a deadly strike blamed on Israel that destroyed Tehran’s Damascus consulate last week, after he inaugurated a new consulate in the Syrian capital. Tehran, a key Damascus ally, has vowed to avenge last Monday’s air strike on the Iranian embassy’s consular section that killed seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members, including two generals. The strike came against the backdrop of Israel and Hamas’s ongoing war, which began with the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel.  “America is responsible for this incident and must be held accountable,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told reporters in Damascus.

“The fact that the US and two European countries opposed a (UN Security Council) resolution condemning the attack on the Iranian embassy is a sign that the US gave the green light to the Zionist regime (Israel)” to carry out the attack, he claimed. Asked about Abdollahian’s remarks, deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh denied Washington was connected to the attack. “I can very forcefully push back on that and say… the US military had no involvement in that strike that took place in Damascus,” she told journalists. On April 2, a day after the consulate strike, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby had dismissed as “nonsense” comments by Amir-Abdollahian that Washington, Israel’s main backer, bore responsibility for the attack.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan