Iran promises Israel will “pay” for the death of its military leader

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi vowed retaliation after Israel reportedly killed a senior general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in Syria on Monday.

In a statement, Raisi said Israel would “certainly pay for this crime,” The Times of Israel (TOI) reported.

“Without a doubt, this action is another sign of the frustration, helplessness and incompetence of the usurping Zionist regime in the region,” Raisi said in the statement.

Brigadier General Razi Mousavi was reportedly killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Damascus suburb of Sayida Zeinab, Iranian news agency Tasnim reported on Monday.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari declined to comment on the alleged airstrike at a press conference on Monday, TOI reported.

TOI also reported that Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on X (formerly Twitter) that “Tel Aviv faces a difficult countdown” and that Mousavi had “fought bravely for many years… to ensure the security of Iran and the region.”

The attack comes against the backdrop of ongoing high tensions between Israel and Hezbollah on Israel’s northern border.

Mousavi was reportedly a close associate of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in 2020. He was reportedly responsible for coordinating the military alliance between Iran and Syria and was allegedly involved in supplying weapons to Hezbollah, TOI reported.

Tensions between Iran and Israel have only escalated over the past two months, as Israel bombed Gaza in response to the October 7 attack on Israel by the group designated as a terrorist organization by the US government.

In view of the war in the Gaza Strip, in which Hezbollah has fired rockets at northern Israel, there are repeated fears that a larger war could break out.

In addition, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have paralyzed shipping through the Red Sea – another sign of the danger of an escalation of the war.

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