UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned the recent attack on Iran’s diplomatic premises in Syria’s capital, following similar condemnation from the Taliban’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Afghanistan.
Several Arab nations, including Egypt, Kuwait and Lebanon also condemned the widely-believed Israeli air strike, which hit a building next to the Islamic Republic’s alleged diplomatic premise in Damascus.
In an interview with CNN however, the IDF chief spokesman Daniel Hagari said according to Israeli intelligence, the building was not a consulate nor an embassy.
According to Iran’s state media and its foreign ministry, the Israeli airstrike killed seven officials, including IRGC top commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi and IRGC senior commander Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi.
In response to the attack, Guterres also said the “inviolability of diplomatic, consular premises, personnel must be respected in all cases”.
The Taliban meanwhile denounced the attack via a spokesperson saying that it “considers Israel's attack on the consular branch of the embassy of the Islamic Republic in Damascus a clear violation of diplomatic norms and a provocative act."
IRGC commanders do not enjoy the immunity diplomats are offered.
While it was alleged that "several long-serving" diplomats were also killed, no names were provided and it has yet to be confirmed by independent media.
Monday’s airstrike coincided with a public holiday for Iranian officials, who commemorate the death anniversary of the first Shiite Islamic Imam, and the embassy should have been closed.
Although Israel has not taken responsibility for the strike, Iran International sources say it was an Israeli operation.
UN Chief Guterres further called on all “concerned to exercise utmost restraint” and “avoid further escalation”.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and all top officials have condemned the attack vowing revenge at a time of their own choosing.
The Iranian authorities’ actions come as the Islamic month of Ramadan and the death anniversary of the first Imam coincided with the Persian New Year celebration of Sizdah Be-dar.
After contradictory statements from the government ahead of the holiday, authorities blocked access to parks and roads to recreational spots around rivers and lakes and forests, using concrete blocks and heaps of earth – common picnic locations where Iranians usually gather on this day.
In some places police also actively interfered with those who had ventured out to picnic despite the warnings and even clashed with them. A video posted on social media shows the police using tear gas to disperse the picnickers in Masouleh. Infuriated Iranians in the touristic town in northern Iran eventually drove them out by booing and shouting “scoundrels” at them.
Police are booed after firing tear gas at picnickers in Masouleh.
Although the Sizdah Be-dar picnic is traditionally celebrated during daytime, Iranians in some areas waited until the evening to get out, as authorities had announced that parks and public gardens would be open after iftar – the evening time of breaking the fast.
At Tehran’s Gheytarieh Park the police assaulted street musicians who were playing music and took them away while angry people booed them.
Police forcefully remove street musicians from Gheytarieh Park in Tehran.
In many areas the Basij paramilitary and vigilantes patrolled the picnic spots in vehicles, playing loud mourning songs on megaphones to intimidate and threaten the picnickers to leave the area. A video posted on social media shows them threatening picnickers at a beach in Langaroud in northern Iran with one of them shouting “This is the city of Imam Hussain, pick up your stuff and leave” into a megaphone.
Paramilitary Basijis threatening picnickers in Langaroud in northern Iran
The 13th and final day of the Persian New Years holidays is called Sizdah Be-dar and is always celebrated with a picnic. Sizdah Be-dar is often thought to mean “casting off [the inauspiciousness] of thirteen]” but can also mean “spending the thirteenth in the valleys”.
Video sent to Iran International shows a police car blocking the road to a picnic spot.
Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the regime has reluctantly tolerated the country’s ancient New Year (Norouz) festival which is celebrated on the day of the Spring Equinox. But the religious establishment has been against the celebration of others such as Charshanbeh Souri bonfire night on the last Tuesday of the old year and Sizdah Be-dar. Authorities, accordingly, have often tried to prevent these festivities, both of which are celebrated outdoors joyfully by Iranians.
Islamists play loud mourning songs on a road in the northern province of Gilan.
To the regime, Chaharshanbeh Suri is viewed as a pagan relic because of its association with fire and Sizdah Be-dar, which was renamed as Nature Day after the Islamic Revolution of 1979, promotes superstition.
Be that as it may, the celebration of Sizdah Be-dar is so popular that it has remained a public holiday in the official calendar as most Iranians, even many religious families, have not forsaken their beloved ancient and pre-Islamic festivals and continue to celebrate them, sometimes even alongside religious occasions.
