Major General Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, warned that the killing of Sayyed Razi Mousavi in Syria was a "strategic mistake" which will not remain unanswered.
Mousavi, a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) adviser in Syria and reportedly the chief coordinator of the Iran-Syria military alliance, was killed in an airstrike outside the Syrian capital Damascus on Monday. His death was confirmed to Reuters by three security sources.
In a message on Tuesday reported by the Tasnim news agency, a semi-official outlet associated with the IRGC, Bagheri said that the attack was conducted by Israel "in brazen violation of Syria's sovereignty," adding that it "contravened international conventions, and laid bare the terrorist nature of Israel."
The news agency reported that Bagheri said the attack against Mousavi was part of the "Zionist regime's attempts to get out of a self-created quagmire in Gaza" and "divert the world's attention away from its crimes" in the region.
"The recent developments have driven the ominous regime to a stage that the terrorist and lunatic measures will not only not help prop up its shaky pillars, but also will further tighten the siege the resistance front has laid to it," Bagheri said, as reported by Tasnim news.
Bagheri and other Iranian officials' threats of retaliation heightened fears of the war in Gaza escalating to the entire region.
Mousavi was described by Iranian state television as "among those accompanying Qassem Soleimani," the Iranian commander who used to lead the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force before he was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq in August 2020.
Already on Monday, Iran had warned Israel that it "will pay the price" for allegedly killing Mousavi. "The usurper and savage Zionist regime will pay for this crime," the IRGC said in a statement on Monday.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said that Israel would "certainly pay the price" for Mousavi's death, calling it "a sign of the Zionist regime's frustration and weakness in the region."
Both Raisi and Tasnim news said that Mousavi was "martyred."
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has not confirmed that it was responsible for the killing of Mousavi. In response to a reporter's question on Monday night, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said: "I won't comment on foreign reports, these or others in the Middle East. The Israeli military obviously has a job to protect the security interests of Israel."
Iran's Ambassador to Syria Hossein Akbari told Iranian state television that Mousavi was posted at the embassy in Damascus as a diplomat and he was killed by Israeli missiles on his way home from work, as reported by Reuters.
Newsweek reached out to the IDF for comment on Tuesday via email.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek Reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on U.S. and European politics, global affairs ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
