Middle East - Sharp threats to Israel after death of Iranian general
The death of an Iranian general in a suspected Israeli airstrike in Syria is increasing tensions in the Middle East. According to the Tasnim news agency, Iranian Defense Ministry spokesman Resa Talaei-Nik threatened Israel on Tuesday: "The Zionists (Israel) must be prepared for the consequences of their crime ... and they will be painful."
The senior member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), General Sejed-Rasi Mussawi, was killed in an explosion in a suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus on Monday.
According to the "New York Times", Mussawi is said to have helped monitor the delivery of missiles and other weapons to the Lebanese Hezbollah militia.
The Israeli military only said that it did not comment on foreign media reports regarding the general's death. The New York Times wrote that Israeli officials had admitted that they were preparing for possible Iranian retaliation.
The Revolutionary Guards vowed revenge on Israel. "The Zionist regime (Israel) will definitely pay for the martyrdom of our longtime military adviser," it said on the IRGC web portal.
Israel issued a sharp warning to Hezbollah in Lebanon, which is allied with Iran. "We are hitting Hezbollah very hard - it has lost around 150 fighters, its infrastructure is damaged, it has been pushed back far from the border and the (Israeli) air force is flying unhindered over Lebanon," said Israel's Defense Minister Joav Gallant.
Why is Israel attacking targets in Syria?
Israel is attacking targets in Syria to prevent Iran from expanding its military influence there with the help of militias. Both Lebanon and Syria are neighboring countries of Israel. Israel feels threatened by the missile arsenals of Hezbollah and other militias.
For Tehran, Syria is part of the so-called "axis of resistance" in the fight against Israel alongside the Shiite organization Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Islamist Hamas. According to US intelligence, Iran also supports the Houthi rebels in Yemen and militias in Iraq.
Since the beginning of the Gaza war following the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7, there have been almost daily exchanges of fire between Israel's army and Hezbollah in the Israeli-Lebanese border region. It is the most serious escalation since the second Lebanon war in 2006.
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Source: www.stern.de
