Iran Press/ West Asia: “We were not involved in any way whatsoever ” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters after the Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that the US is to be held to account and we’re to blame it because of its military support for Israel.
Iran is preparing to bury the commanders and operatives martyred in an Israeli strike on its embassy compound in Damascus amid heightened regional tensions, prompting the US to clarify that it had no role in the attack.
The strike at the Iranian consulate adjacent to the embassy building, martyred at least 14 people among them seven from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) including high-ranking Quds Forces commander and his deputy in Lebanon and Syria, Lieutenant General Mohammad Reza Zahedi.
The funeral and commemoration ceremony of Iranian martyrs was held in the shrine of Hazrat Ruqayya(PBUH) in Damascus on Wednesday with the large presence of Syrian people and political and religious figures. Funerals will be held in Tehran on Friday and in Isfahan on Saturday.
US had no involvement in that strike: Pentagon
World, regional, and Arab media after Iran leader's comments after the Israeli attack say that "Iran's direct response" should not be disregarded.
After White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that the US "were not involved in any way", Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said the US had told Iran via “private channels” that it was not responsible for the strike.
“I will reiterate the US had no involvement in that strike. And we had no knowledge about it ahead of time, so I’ll just leave it at that,” she said.
A report by the Arabic language website " MENA" said that a "source close to Iran's allies in the region said the US “knows the gravity of what Israel did and that it should expect that Iran carries out some kind of response. Washington already fears the possibility of the collapse of the Iraqi truce that has been in place since last February".
Israel on Alert
"Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) spokesperson Ramadan Sharif warned Israel on Wednesday that deadly attacks against Israel would be carried out soon. The resistance front will do its duty.”
General Sharif added "We shall witness more and deadlier strikes against Israel.
According to the Israeli Media " Israel was on alert Wednesday for retaliatory strikes by Iran and resistance forces for the attack on Iran's consulate in the Syrian capital of Damascus"
Hezbollah said Tuesday that Zahedi played a crucial role in helping “develop and advance the work” of the group in Lebanon.
“This crime will certainly not pass without the enemy receiving punishment and revenge,” Hezbollah said in a statement.
Monday's strike on Damascus "is a significant escalation and risks tipping an already volatile, unstable region into full-scale war,” Dana Stroul, formerly the Pentagon’s top Middle East policy official who is now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, tells The New York Times.
Because the attack was aimed at an embassy compound and killed a top commander, Iran considered it an attack on its sovereign territory under international law, according to CNN.
The Axios website reported on Tuesday that the United States had informed Iran that it was “not involved in the attack” and did not know in advance about the Israeli military’s intention to carry it out. Egypt’s Foreign Ministry also responded to the attack and condemned it: “We condemn the damage to the staff of the Iranian consulate in Damascus. We reject any and all attacks on diplomatic facilities. We stand in solidarity with our brothers in Syria in respect to its sovereignty, territorial integrity, and its people.”
A report in the New York Times on Wednesday in a report suggested that Iran could fire long-range ballistic missiles directly at Israel from its territory.
The Financial Times quoted a senior Iranian official who said that his country is not interested in escalating the conflict with Israel or the US. According to the report also published on Wednesday, the senior official added that “the attack in Damascus shows that Israel is the one interested in leading Iran into conflict.”
Elliott Abrams, a Middle East expert at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank in America, also said that he believes that Iran does not want an all-out war with Israel but could target Israeli interests.
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