A member of Iran's National Security Commission claims this week's Israeli attack on Iran’s consulate in Damascus violates the Vienna Convention.
Abbas Golrou went on to warn that Iran “would not be constrained by any boundaries or red lines” in its response to the incident.
The attack, which occurred on Monday, resulted in the deaths of two Revolutionary Guard generals and five other IRGC officers. The attack followed a significant Israeli air strike inside Syria the previous week, claiming the lives of over 40, predominantly Syrian soldiers and Hezbollah militants.
Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General for Middle East, Asia and the Pacific in the Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations for the United Nations, said after the attack, “The rules-based international order is essential for international peace and security, which this Council is mandated to maintain,” said in his briefing to the UN Security Council after the attack.
The UN did not blame Israel directly other than referring to the attack as "reported Israeli attacks", but warned, “Any miscalculation could lead to broader conflict in an already volatile region, with devastating consequences for civilians who are already seeing unprecedented suffering in Syria, Lebanon, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and the broader Middle East".
In the briefing, delegations such as Russia and China, key allies of Iran and fellow pariah states, voiced concerns that any attack on diplomatic and consular premises violates the Charter of the United Nations as well as the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.
The Monday airstrike was by all accounts an unprecedented escalation of the shadow war between Iran and Israel which has escalated in the wake of Iran-backed Hamas's invasion of Israel on October 7. Israel has on many occasions hit IRGC-related targets in Syria, but never before a diplomatic site, though experts such as Ronen Solomon from Intellitimes claim the complex was in fact a military complex for the IRGC.
Sources have speculated that the attack on Iran’s consulate was a retaliatory measure for a drone strike on Israel the night before, targeting a naval base in Eilat. A spokesman for the Israeli army said the drone was “made in Iran” and the attack was “directed by Iran.”
Despite the ongoing tensions in the region, Iran has refrained from direct confrontation with Israel, particularly amid the six-month conflict involving Iran-backed groups in Gaza, preferring to trigger its proxies to attack Israel from Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and Syria.