Iran’s foreign minister visited Damascus on Monday, according to local media, a week after a deadly strike blamed on Israel that destroyed Tehran’s consulate in the Syrian capital.
Iran has vowed to avenge the air strike that killed seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), among them two generals.
The strike came amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, which began after the Iran-backed group’s unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7.
Syria and Iran have blamed Israel, which has not commented on the strike.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian kicked off a regional tour a day earlier in Oman, a long-time mediator between Tehran and the West, where Muscat’s foreign minister urged a de-escalation.
Amir-Abdollahian is set to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad and Syria’s information ministry said he will inaugurate a new Iranian consular section.
Talks will focus on the repercussions of last week’s strike, according to Syria’s pro-government newspaper al-Watan.
An advisor to Iran’s supreme leader said on Sunday that Israeli embassies were “no longer safe.”
Analysts believe the raid indicates an escalation of Israel’s campaign against Iran and its regional proxies that risks sparking a wider war beyond the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 16 people were killed in the consulate strike, including eight Iranians, five Syrians, and one member of Hezbollah, as well as two civilians.
Senior Quds Force commanders Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi were killed in the strike.
Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes in Syria since the beginning of the country’s civil war 13 years ago, targeting Iran-backed forces, including Hezbollah, and Syrian army positions, as well as weapons depots.
It rarely comments on individual strikes but raids escalated after the Gaza war began.
Tehran backs Hamas but has denied any direct involvement in the group’s October 7 attack.
