Iran gives ‘red line’ warning over Israeli attack
Iran has told the United States that Israel “crossed Iran’s red lines” for an attack on the Syrian-controlled Golan Heights that killed an Iranian general, a senior official said Tuesday.
An airstrike on a Hezbollah convoy near the Golan Heights on Jan. 18 killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard General, Mohammad Ali Allahdadi alongside six fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah group forces supporting President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s civil war.
Israel has not officially acknowledged carrying out the attack.
“We have sent a message to the United States through diplomatic channels telling the Americans that the Zionist regime crossed Iran’s red lines by this action,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.
“In this message, we said those responsible should wait to suffer the consequences of their act,” he added, in remarks carried by the official IRNA news agency.
Amir-Abdollahian was speaking on the sidelines of a memorial service for Allahdadi also attended by General Ghassem Souleimani, head of the Guards’ elite Quds Force, which is responsible for operations outside Iran.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said she would not comment on or confirm what she called “private diplomatic communications” although she did not directly deny that the Iranians had made such a request.
“We absolutely condemn any such threats that come in any form, and we continue to strongly support Israel’s safety and security,” Psaki told reporters.
She also dismissed any notion that any such message by Iran was made during bilateral talks with the U.S. last week in Switzerland.
“As we’ve said before, the only issue that is being discussed within the talks concerns Iran’s nuclear program. So you can assume that was not a channel in this case,” she said.
Troops and civilians in northern Israel and the Golan Heights have been on heightened alert and Israel has deployed an Iron Dome rocket interceptor unit near the Syrian border.
Both Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006, and the Revolutionary Guards vowed to avenge the deaths.
Israel captured the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war. Mortar shells and rockets have struck the heights numerous times during Syria’s nearly four-year-old civil war.
[wpResize]
You must be logged in to post a comment.