Iranian general promises ‘maximum damage’ to Israel, says Iran will define time and manner of response

During a memorial ceremony for Maj.-Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior IRGC commander and military advisor who was killed in an apparent Israeli strike in Syria on April 1, the chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces promised to retaliate.

“The Israeli attack won’t remain unanswered,” Iran's Armed Forces Chief Maj.-Gen. Mohammad Hossein Baqeri vowed.

Promising “maximum damage,” Bagheri told ceremony attendees: “The time, type, plan of the operation will be decided by us, in a way that makes Israel regret what it did.” 

The ceremony took place in the central city of Isfahan a day after Iranian leaders and senior commanders attended state funerals for seven senior Iranian officers killed in the alleged Israeli airstrike in Damascus.

The unprecedented attack resulted in the deaths of seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members, several Syrian military leaders, as well as a Hezbollah official. While Israel is widely believed to be behind the attack, it has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement. 

Zahedi, a commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force, an elite unit that concentrates on foreign espionage and operations, is the highest-ranking member of the IRGC to be killed since former U.S. President Donald Trump ordered an airstrike to eliminate top IRGC leader Qassem Soleimani in 2020. Zahedi was reportedly responsible for supervising the Quds Force's activities in the Palestinian Territories, Lebanon, and Syria.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf also condemned Israel on Sunday. 

Speaking to the Iranian parliament, Qalibaf said the “Zionist enemy” proved that it “knows no boundaries in committing crime” and that it openly violates international law. 

Qalibaf also claimed that Iran’s response to the assassination of Zahedi would provide an “instructive lesson” to Israel and “hasten the decline of the Zionist regime.” 

General Yahya Rahim Safavi, top military advisor of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threatened attacks on Israeli embassies worldwide. 

“The embassies of the Zionist regime are no longer safe,” Safavi remarked, according to Iran’s ISNA news agency. He said the closures “happened out of fear, and it means that confronting this brutal regime is a legal and legitimate right.” 

“The shadow of fear and terror looms over the occupied lands, and the Zionists see the specter of death in their dreams every night,” Safavi said. 

At the same time, several Iranian leaders claimed that the Islamic regime had no interest in escalating the situation. 

The former chairman of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, accused foreign actors of trying to “drag Iran into war."

“The interests of all actors in the region today lie in dragging Iran into war,” Falahatpisheh said. 

According to an Israeli news report, Iran is expected to retaliate by attacking an IDF site in the Golan Heights, which the country views as a "convenient target" due to the number of IDF posts there.