With its latest assassination, Israel is testing Iran
Qassem Suleimani with a drone strike in 2020. Israeli officials did not publicly claim responsibility for the strike (though in private they leave little doubt about their role). But they did argue that whoever bombed the embassy compound had a right to do so.
Daniel Hagari, the army spokesman, described the building in question as a “military building…disguised as a civilian building". It is true that the IRGC officers were not in Damascus to negotiate lower pistachio tariffs. And it is galling to hear Iranian officials invoke the sanctity of consular buildings, when the first major act of the newly established Islamic Republic was to take hostages at the American embassy in Tehran in 1979.
But that sanctity is nonetheless a long-standing global norm. If the mere presence of military men was enough to override it, some of Israel’s own embassies would be legitimate targets too. Even Saudi Arabia, a longtime rival of Iran, was quick to denounce the strike, although it did not name Israel in its condemnation.
Since October 7th, when Hamas militants crossed the border from Gaza and killed more than 1,100 people, Israel has been fighting on two fronts: against Hamas in Gaza, and against a wider array of Iranian-backed militias across the region. The most powerful of those is Hizbullah, which has carried out near-daily missile attacks against towns and army bases in northern Israel. But the group has held back from all-out war: most Lebanese do not want their country dragged into one, and Iran is wary about risking its most useful proxy.
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