THE head of Iran’s warped terrorist army has vowed to “punish” Israel in an escalating series of threats following a deadly air strike on its embassy in Syria.
Thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets to burn Israeli and US flags and screamed “death” to them both in a mass display of absolute fury – while Israel braces for a possible attack.
Since the suspected Israeli bombing of Iran’s consulate building in Damascus on Monday that left at least 12 dead – Iran has been spewing increasingly potent threats at its greatest foe.
The strike killed seven senior Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) officials, including Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who led the elite Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria.
Today, the commander of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard, General Hossein Salami, said that Israel “cannot escape the consequences”.
He raged that “our brave men will punish the Zionist regime” for the killings.
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“It is exposed and knows very well what is going to happen,” Salami added.
Salami’s threats come as thousands of Iranians joined a funeral procession in Tehran earlier today for the seven IRGC members, chanting “death to Israel” and “death to America”.
Banners read: “We will make the wicked Zionist regime regret this crime, with the power of God.”
Pictures of the dead men were displayed on the trucks, accompanied by the slogan “Martyrs on the road to Jerusalem”.
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Their coffins were kissed by supporters as they were paraded through the filled streets of Tehran.
Today’s venom-filled protests also coincide with the annual Quds (Jerusalem) Day commemorations, when Iran and its allies stage marches in support of the Palestinians.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei earlier this week also vowed that Israel “will be punished” for the Damascus strike.
The attack on an Iranian diplomatic compound was a significant escalation in what has been a long-running shadow war between the two archenemies.
Israel has orchestrated assassinations and sabotage attacks against Iran and its regional proxies, including Hezbollah, carrying out hundreds of strikes against targets in Syria and Lebanon.
However, now analysts believe Israel is stepping up its campaign and that runs the risk of triggering a wider war beyond the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip.
PM Benjamin Netanyahu returned Iran’s threat last night, stating that Israel will “act both defensively and offensively”.
The embattled leader fumed: “Iran has been acting against us for years..We will know how to defend ourselves.
“And we will act according to the simple principle: that those who harm us or plan to harm us, we will harm.”
The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has now announced it has cancelled all leave for soldiers serving in combat units.
It comes a day after the military said it was beefing up its air defences, readying missiles, and calling up reservists in preparation for the Iranian response.
On Thursday, GPS units across large swaths of central Israel were disabled to disrupt incoming missiles and drones, even in cities far from active combat zones.
Israeli media outlets also reported that the country’s embassies around the world had been placed on alert or evacuated due to security threats.
The history of Israel and Iran’s relationship
THERE’S been an ongoing conflict between Israel (left) and Iran (right).
In 1947, Iran was among 13 countries that voted against the United Nations Partition Plan for the British Mandate of Palestine.
Two years later, Iran also voted against Israel’s admission to the United Nations.
After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran severed all diplomatic and commercial ties with Israel, and its theocratic government does not recognise the legitimacy of Israel as a state.
The turn from cold peace to open hostility began in the early 1990s, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the defeat of Iraq in the Gulf War, after which relative power in the Middle East shifted to Iran and Israel.
CONFLICT ‘HEATS UP’
The conflict escalated in the early 1990s, as Yitzhak Rabin’s government adopted a more aggressive posture on Iran.
Rhetorical conflict heated up during the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who made inflammatory statements against Israel.
Other factors that have contributed to the escalation of bilateral tensions include Iran’s development of nuclear technology relative to Israel’s long-stated Begin Doctrine, Iran’s funding of Islamist groups such as Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas, as well as alleged involvement in terrorist attacks such as the 1992 attack on Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires and the 1994 AMIA bombing, and Israel’s alleged support for militant groups such as the People’s Mujahedin of Iran and Jundallah as well as alleged covert Israeli operations in Iran including multiple assassinations and bombings.
‘COMPLEX AND ONGOING’
Since 1985, Iran and Israel have been engaged in an ongoing proxy conflict that has greatly affected the geopolitics of the Middle East, and has included direct military confrontations between Iranian and Israeli organisations, such as in the 2006 Lebanon War.
The conflict has played out in various ways, including through support for opposing factions in conflicts in Syria and Yemen.
Iran has provided support to the Syrian government, while Israel has supported opposition groups.
In Yemen, Iran has provided support to the Houthi rebels, while Israel has provided support to the Saudi-led coalition fighting the rebels.
The conflict has also involved cyber attacks and sabotage against each other’s infrastructure, including attacks on nuclear facilities and oil tankers.
Overall, the Iran-Israel proxy conflict is a complex and ongoing conflict that has had a significant impact on the political and security dynamics of the Middle East.
INSIDE THE WAR
In the Israeli–Lebanese conflict, Iran has supported Lebanese Shia militias, most notably Hezbollah. In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Iran has backed Palestinian groups such as Hamas.
Israel has supported Iranian rebels, such as the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, conducted airstrikes against Iranian allies in Syria and assassinated Iranian nuclear scientists. In 2018 Israeli forces directly attacked Iranian forces in Syria.
Iranian Islamists have long championed the Palestinian people, whom they perceive as “oppressed”.
Scholars believe that by supporting the Palestinians, Iran seeks greater acceptance among Sunnis and Arabs, both of whom dominate the Middle East.
Ideologically, Iran seeks to replace Israel with a one-state solution and has predicted Israel’s demise. Israel sees Iran as an existential threat, and accuses its regime of harbouring genocidal intentions.
Consequently, Israel has sought sanctions and military action against Iran to stop it from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Late on Wednesday, Netanyahu signalled he was preparing for an “imminent” Iranian attack as he convened a war cabinet to prepare for the threat.
As fear spreads across country, crowds have headed for supermarkets and long lines have formed at petrol stations as Israelis fear they will be ordered to their safe rooms.
The IDF has tried to warn its frightened citizens against panic buying. Rear Adm Hagari said on X: “There is no need to buy generators, store food and withdraw money from ATMs.
It was not clear if Iran would respond directly or continue to activate its proxies, as it has done throughout the Gaza war.
Iran has a record of using its terror proxies to carry out its dirty work on a global scale to avoid a direct confrontation between its enemies of Israel and the US.
Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza nearly six months ago, Iranian proxies have been unleashing hell on the sidelines.
Hezbollah have stepped up attacks, leading to near-daily cross-border exchanges with Israel, while Yemen’s Houthi rebels have virtually shut down one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.
However, Israel is said to be fearful that Iran could respond directly this time by launching missiles from its own territory, rather than through its proxies.
Such an attack would likely prompt Israel’s military to respond with a significant reprisal – which could spark a global war.
Former IDF Intelligence head Amos Yadlin told Channel 12: “I won’t be surprised if Iran fires directly at Israel.”
Israel is still facing a global backlash in the wake of its deadly strike on an aid convoy, that killed three former British soldiers.
Former SBS special forces hero John Chapman, 57, ex-Royal Marine James Henderson, 33, and former Rifleman James Kirby, 47 were killed alongside four other charity workers.
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Today, the IDF announced the results of its investigation, stating its units had mistakenly thought Hamas terrorists were inside.
The military added that the second and third hits on the aid convoy that killed seven in total were “grave mistakes” and sacked two commanders as a result.
The Sun’s Defence Editor’s analysis of the Middle East tinderbox
By Jerome Starkey, The Sun’s Defence Editor
FEARS that the Middle East could explode into all-out war are ratcheting up after Iran vowed vengeance for a deadly Israeli missile strike on its embassy in Damascus, the capital of Syria.
At least 11 people were killed when a consular annex was reduced to rubble by strikes which Iran says were carried out by Israeli F-35 fighter jets.
Now among those 11 killed were two top Iranian generals, Brigadier Mohammed Reza Zahidi, who we understand commanded Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in Syria and neighbouring Iraq, and Brigadier Mohammed Haji Rahimi.
Also among the dead is a representative of the Hezbollah terrorist group Hussein Yusuf.
Both Iran and Hezbollah have vowed vengeance, with Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi saying this strike will not go unanswered.
The suggestion is that perhaps Israel has crossed a threshold with a strike on an embassy.
Embassies are sovereign soil of the nations they belong to, so this was a strike on sovereign Iranian soil in Syria and in one sense it is an escalation and the concerns that this could spiral out are in many ways well founded.
Interestingly we’ve heard reports in the local media in Syria and in the region that America appears to be distancing itself from this strike, officials saying they had no advanced knowledge.
It would appear that the reason for this missile strike was the meeting between these Revolutionary Guard commanders and the representatives of Hezbollah.
We will now have to wait and see how Iran chooses to take its revenge.
Now of course, if you are an Israeli diplomat living abroad, then you may well think that you are now more of a target.
Because Israel has targeted an Iranian embassy, we may expect to see the possibility that Iran may target Israeli diplomats or missions around the world.
And we have just seen, in the last few days suspected Iranian agents attacking an Iranian journalist here in London.
Tehran is showing, perhaps by this stabbing that it maintains the ability and the capability to attack people it sees as critical of the regime enemies of the regime around the world.
Some context that we understand that Tehran employs criminal proxies to carry out that sort of dirty work doesn’t necessarily have the same sort of sophisticated overseas operations that we might expect of other hostile actors like Russia.
But nonetheless, I think in the wake of what happened in Damascus on Monday, combined with what’s been happening across the region in recent months, there is concern and anxiety to see how Iran responds and what that will elicit from Israel.
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Iona Cleave
