By The Cradle
The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting on 2 April over the Israeli airstrike, which flattened Iran’s consulate in Damascus and killed several advisors and senior officials.
Iran demanded an urgent session that day following the unprecedented attack. The meeting was called by Russia.
During the session, Tehran’s ambassador to the UN, Zahra Ershadi, renewed the promise made by several Iranian officials that the Islamic Republic reserves the right “to take a decisive response” to the Israeli airstrike.
Iran “has exercised considerable restraint, but it is imperative to acknowledge there are limits to such forbearance,” Ershadi said, adding that it holds Washington “responsible for all crimes committed by the Israeli regime.” She also blamed the US for destabilizing Syria and the region and for continuing its support of the Israeli war on Gaza.
“This crime bluntly breaches the fundamental principle of diplomatic and consular immunity and flagrantly violated the 1961 Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Internationally Protected Persons, including Diplomatic Agents of 1973,” Ershadi continued.
Russia’s UN representative, Vasily Nebenzia, said during the emergency meeting that Israel’s attack was a “flagrant violation” of Syrian sovereignty and said Moscow believes “that such aggressive actions by Israel are designed to further fuel the conflict. They are absolutely unacceptable and must stop.”
China also strongly condemned Israel, calling it “a grave violation of the UN Charter and international law and a breach of the sovereignty of both Syria and Iran,” adding that the attack was of an extremely vicious nature.”
“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,” said Geng Shuang, China’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN.
Syria’s Permanent Representative echoed Ershadi’s comments and said the attack would not have happened without Washington’s “blind support” for Israel.
Mohamed Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, told the UNSC that the “inviolability of diplomatic and consular premises and personnel must be respected in all cases in accordance with international law.”
Washington’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Robert Wood, warned Iran “and its proxies not to take advantage of the situation” by resuming attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria, stressing the US “had no involvement or advanced knowledge” of the attack on the consulate.
Earlier that day, a US official told Axios that Washington swiftly informed Tehran that it had no part in the strike.
The airstrike completely leveled the Iranian consulate in Syria’s capital, Damascus, killing several, including a senior officer in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi.
IRGC officer Brigadier General Mohammad Hadi Hajj Rahimi was also killed in the attack, alongside five other advisors and officials.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi vowed the attack would “not go unanswered.” Several other officials, including Iran’s ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, promised that a response would come.
Several nations have publicly condemned the deadly attack on the consulate. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and Egypt all released statements, as well as resistance groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
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