Ambassador: Iran reserves right to respond to Israeli strike

Iranian Ambassador to the Russian Federation Kazem Jalali has said that Iran does not want to expand the war zone.

“Iran does not want to expand the war zone, but reserves the right to respond to Israel's attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria,” Jalali said at a press conference, Caliber.Az reports with reference to Russian media.

“We reserve the right to respond, but, as the Iranian leader noted, the attack will be made in time. The chairman of the General Staff of the Armed Forces said that the Iranian armed forces will have the initiative,” he said.

He noted that Tehran will choose the time, date and the type of the response.

The Iranian ambassador also said that Iran has so far proven that it does not want to expand the “zone of conflict and war”.

Suspected Israeli warplanes bombed Iran's embassy in Syria on April in a strike that Iran said killed seven of its military advisers, including three senior commanders, marking a major escalation in Israel's war with its regional adversaries.

Reuters reporters at the site in the Mezzeh district of Damascus saw emergency workers clambering atop rubble of a destroyed building inside the diplomatic compound, adjacent to the main Iranian embassy building. Emergency vehicles were parked outside. An Iranian flag hung from a pole by the debris.

"We strongly condemn this atrocious terrorist attack that targeted the Iranian consulate building in Damascus and killed a number of innocents," said Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad who was seen at the site along with Syria's interior minister.

Iran's ambassador to Syria said the strike hit a consular building in the embassy compound and that his residence was on the top two floors.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement that seven Iranian military advisers died in the strike including Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in its Quds Force, which is an elite foreign espionage and paramilitary arm.