(Tehran) Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that Israel would be “slapped” after airstrikes on the consular annex of the Iranian embassy in Damascus, in which Seven Revolutionary Guards died on Monday.
“The defeat of the Zionist regime in Gaza will continue and this regime will be close to decline and dissolution,” said Mr. Khamenei in a speech delivered in Tehran to an audience of Iranian officials.
“Desperate efforts like those they made in Syria will not save them from defeat. Of course, they will also be slapped for this action,” he warned.
On Monday, Israeli airstrikes destroyed the consular annex of the Iranian embassy in Damascus, according to Syrian and Iranian officials, including killing seven members of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic.
Among these victims are two generals of the Quds Force, which intervenes beyond the borders, Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) indicated on Wednesday that the death toll from the raid had risen to 16 dead, including two civilians.
It was the fifth Israeli raid in the space of a week in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad is supported by Iran, Israel’s sworn enemy in the region.
Iran immediately accused Israel, but the latter, which rarely comments on its strikes in Syria, did not confirm its responsibility.
Iranian state media reported that the funeral ceremony for the slain Revolutionary Guards would be held on Friday, on the occasion of Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day, during which Iranians will march as they do every year in solidarity with the Palestinians and against Israel.
“If, in previous years, Al-Quds Day was only celebrated in Islamic countries, this year it is very likely that it will also be celebrated in non-Islamic countries,” assured the Supreme Leader, adding that he hoped that “the Muslim world can celebrate the destruction of Israel.”