Israel may be seeking wider war with strike on Iran's consulate

Hope is for Hezbollah to respond, so Israel can destroy Iranian-affiliated militant group

- Jonathan Eyal

The Israeli air strike on an Iranian consulate building in Syria, which killed a top Iranian commander on April 1, represents a sharp escalation of the shadow war between Israel and Iran.

For at least a decade, Israel has targeted both Iranian officials connected to the country's military complex and the top commanders of various Middle Eastern militias associated with Iran.

However, the latest lethal strike is in a different category altogether, for it comes against the backdrop of the continued war in Gaza, and it threatens a far wider regional confrontation. But that may be precisely what the Israeli government is now seeking.

The air strike reduced to rubble the consulate building inside a more extensive Iranian embassy complex located in Mazzeh, the upscale neighbourhood in the Syrian capital of Damascus.

As with previous attacks in Syria, Israeli officials declined to comment on the strike, let alone accept responsibility. But nobody, either inside the Jewish state or elsewhere in the Middle East, has the slightest doubt that the operation bears all the hallmarks of Israel.

The Iranian diplomatic representation was closed on April 1 to mark the 13th day of Nowruz, a traditional festival celebrating the new year of the Persian calendar. So, whoever planned the strike must have had highly accurate information that key Iranian officials were not only working during the public holiday, but would also be inside the consulate building.

A total of 14 people were killed in the strike, including Brigadier-General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, and his deputy Hadi Haji Rahimi.

Brig-Gen Zahedi was considered one of Iran's most important representatives in Syria. The 63-year-old general belonged to the generation that participated in Iran's Islamic Revolution at the end of the 1970s.