Canadian officials have said little publicly about the situation at the Canadian embassy in Damascus, Syria, a week after the Iranian embassy annex next door was destroyed by an Israeli bomb or missile.
A Global Affairs Canada (GAC) official told CBC News that the April 1 airstrike damaged the Canadian embassy building, with at least some windows smashed out. Authorities have not yet been able to assess the structural damage to the building.
The explosion that destroyed the consulate annex next door would have sent powerful shock waves into the foundations of adjacent buildings.
Global Affairs declined to answer questions about whether the Israeli government warned Canada ahead of the attack on the Iranian embassy annex.
The nearby Canadian Embassy ceased operations in 2012 as the Syrian civil war worsened. GAC did not say whether Israel had confirmed to Canada that no Canadian personnel were present at the time of the air blast.
Canadian diplomats and other personnel, including RCMP personnel, have entered Syria several times since the embassy closed. It is unclear whether they used the embassy as a base of operations.
GAC officials told CBC News the embassy building remains Canadian government property.
The Canadian Embassy is located two doors down from the Islamic Republic’s large and ornate embassy on Al Farabi Street in the Mazzeh district, home to many foreign embassies. Between the two buildings was a nondescript consular annex used by the Iranian government.
On the evening of Monday, April 1, the annex was hosting a meeting of Iranian generals and leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The death toll from the Israeli airstrike could not be independently confirmed. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the airstrike killed 16 people, including two civilian bystanders.
Israeli airstrikes hit a building next to the Iranian embassy in Damascus on Monday, Iranian media and security officials reported. At least six people were reportedly killed, including a senior commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Iranian Ambassador to Syria Hossein Akbari claimed The attack was carried out by an Israeli F-35 aircraft, which fired six missiles.
The Iranian government announced the deaths of seven members of the Revolutionary Guards, including two generals. Some Israeli media outlets claim that Hezbollah representatives were killed in the attack, new york times A representative from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad attended the meeting, a Revolutionary Guards official said.
The most significant loss for Iran was that of Iranian Brig. Mohammad Reza Zahedi of the Quds Force, the external operations arm of the Revolutionary Guards. Reza Zahedi was the only Iranian to serve on the shura (guidance council) of the Lebanese Shiite organization Hezbollah and was widely considered to be Iran’s top military official in Syria and Lebanon.
Israel has a policy of not claiming responsibility for attacks carried out in other countries. An Israeli embassy spokesperson declined to say whether Israel warned Canada ahead of the airstrike.
Ifa Miftak Greenwald of the Israeli embassy told CBC News that “Israel does not take responsibility for the attack” and had “no further comment.”
This morning, an Israeli airstrike targeted and completely destroyed a building between the Iranian and Canadian embassies in the Syrian capital Damascus, which houses senior Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) officials. It is reported that this is possible. pic.twitter.com/wgUoFtz7HL
Iran has promised to retaliate. “The Zionist regime’s embassy is no longer safe,” Yahya Rahim Safavi, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, told Iran’s state-run ISNA news agency.
Iranian television also released images of various types of ballistic missiles that it said could attack Israel. Threat of retaliation caused Israel to cancel all military leave; Strengthen air defense system.
Israeli officials too leaked news Their air force was training to prepare for an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
The Vienna Convention, which protects diplomatic missions overseas, only prohibits host countries from committing acts of violence against diplomatic missions overseas, and while Israel’s attack on an embassy in a third country violates international custom, it is not a violation of the treaty.
Israel has long maintained that Iranian officials were involved in the incident. deadly bombing At the embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992.
In December, an Israeli airstrike on the home of another French consulate employee in Gaza killed him and his family.
French Foreign Ministry: “On Wednesday night, a residential building was hit by an Israeli airstrike, seriously injuring a staff member and killing about 10 people.” Said.
France condemned the bombing of a residential building.
“We have asked for an explanation as to why the house was attacked,” French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said.