In response to an attack on the Iranian Embassy compound in Syria, the United States strongly advised Iran not to take any retaliatory actions on Tuesday. The United States specifically said that it was unaware of the strike when it made the warning statement at a UN Security Council meeting. Two Iranian generals and five military advisers were killed in the strike, which Tehran has blamed on Israel, a major ally of Washington. This marked a dramatic uptick in hostilities in the region.Robert Wood, the deputy US ambassador to the UN, reiterated that the US was not involved in the attack and that it was not aware of it beforehand, but he did stress America’s position on defending its personnel. In the context of suspended hostilities, Wood notes that since February, US soldiers in Iraq and Syria have not been attacked by proxies backed by Iran. This cease-fire came after the US took serious military action in response to the deaths of three US soldiers in Jordan, attacking locations in Syria and Iraq linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and the militias it supports.Iran asserted its right to a “decisive response” to the embassy strike, pointing out that Israel’s actions were illegal under international law and the UN Charter. Zahra Ershadi, Iran’s deputy UN ambassador, accused the US of destabilizing Syria and the wider region by standing with Israel against Palestinian terrorists Hamas, holding the US responsible for the activities of the Israeli regime. Ershadi called on the Security Council to denounce the attack on Iranian diplomatic facilities in writing.
