Israel bombs Iranian Embassy in Syria...

 

A bombed out building in the embassy compound in Damascus. Reuters. 

Israel has bombed the Iranian Embassy compound in Syria in what will be a major escalation. Reuters. Iran said the strike killed seven people including three high ranking members of the Quds Force, Iran's paramilitary and espionage arm. The building also functioned as the official resident of Iran's ambassador to Syria. Iran has condemned the attack, calling it a violation of international law. There are fears that Iran will respond to the attack by attacking US forces in Syria and Iraq. Israel might believe that the attack will act as a deterrence instead. 

My Comment:

This is a huge escalation to the wider war in the Middle East. An attack on a diplomatic mission is the same as an attack on the country itself. It is also an obvious act of war and would serve as a valid casus belli for Iran if they wanted to declare war on Israel. There will be some major blowback from this attack... 

So why on earth would Israel attack an embassy? My guess is that the Israelis, correctly, believed that Iran was coordinating attacks on Israel via the embassy. Given that at least three Quds force commanders got killed in this strike, I am guessing they were absolutely right. Indeed, it would be surprising if they weren't using the embassy for this. 

Does that justify attacking an embassy? I would say no. As I said, this is a war crime and not something that really should be tolerated. Attacking diplomats, even ones from a country as bad as Iran, is not a good action and isn't something that should be done. It really shows that Israel simply does not care what the international community does anymore. 

Regardless, it is done and everyone is going to face the blowback. Supposedly Iran has already said they are going to blame the United States for this attack and we have a pretty good idea of how Iran is going to respond. Our troops in Syria and Iraq are going to be attacked. By drones and missiles and it's very possible that we will take casualties. 

Could there be other repercussions? It's possible that Iran could attack Israel or order its proxies to do so. Hezbollah has mostly stayed out of the Gaza war but has skirmished with the Israelis. Will they do a full scale attack in response to this attack? Very possible. 

What is even more concerning is that Iran could activate sleeper agents in the United States and attack us directly. They obviously believe that the Biden White House signed off on this attack and could use terrorists to punish this. And if they don't have sleeper agents here already, they can very easily infiltrate through our open border. 

I have not been very critical of Israel during their war on Gaza, given the behavior of the Palestinians. But attacking an embassy is not something I approve of, even if it was Iran. Doing so is well outside the rules of war and Israel should be criticized for that, especially since we are all going to face the blowback from it.