Pakistan strongly condemns Israeli air attack on Iranian Embassy in Syrian capital Damascus

Pakistan has strongly condemned an Israeli air attack on the consular section of the Iranian Embassy in the Syrian capital Damascus.

Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch in a statement on Tuesday termed the attack an unacceptable violation of the sovereignty of Syria and undermining its stability and security.

She said the attack is a violation of international law and the UN Charter. She said attacks against diplomats or diplomatic facilities are also illegal under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961.

Baloch said the irresponsible act of the Israeli forces is a major escalation in an already volatile region.

The spokesperson called on the UN Security Council to prevent Israel from its adventurism in the region and its illegal acts attacking its neighbors and targeting foreign diplomatic facilities.

She offered deepest condolences to the families of the victims and the people and the Government of Iran on behalf of Pakistan.

Israeli air strikes in Syria 

Syria's official news agency, SANA, said the strikes were carried out by “the Israeli enemy” and targeted the Consular Section of the Iranian Embassy in the Mezzeh neighborhood in Damascus on Monday afternoon.

“At approximately 00:17 p.m. today, the Israeli enemy launched an air aggression from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting the Iranian consulate building in Damascus,” SANA said, citing a military source as saying. 

“Our air defense media responded to the aggression’s missiles and shot down some of them. The aggression led to the destruction of the entire building and the martyrdom and injury of everyone inside, and work is underway to recover the bodies.”

The news agency also reported that the Israeli aggression also caused major destruction to "neighboring buildings."

‘US should be answerable’: FM after deadly Israeli attack on Iran consulate

Iran’s foreign minister says, as the Israeli regime’s biggest supporter, the United States should be “answerable” following an earlier deadly attack by Tel Aviv against the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks in a post on X, formerly Twitter, in early Tuesday.

The Monday attack resulted in the martyrdom of Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), his deputy, and five of their accompanying officers. Iran's Ambassador to Damascus Hossein Akbari confirmed that the attack had resulted in the martyrdom of seven people, but said the exact number of the martyrs was yet to be specified.