US told Iran it ‘had no involvement’ in Israel’s recent Damascus attack: US official

By Zehra Nur Duz

The US informed Iran that it "had no involvement" in a recent Israel airstrike on Iran's Consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus, a US official said on Tuesday.

The US "had no involvement in the (Israeli) strike and we did not know about it ahead of time," US news website Axios quoted a National Security Council spokesperson as saying.

The official told Axios that the US "has communicated this directly to Iran."

At least 11 people were killed in Monday's attack, including three Syrians and one Lebanese national.

Among those killed were two generals of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), elite units of the Iranian armed forces, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi and his deputy, Gen. Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, along with five other military advisers to the guard corps.

The Iranian mission to the UN called the Israeli airstrike on the consulate in Damascus a "cowardly terrorist act" and a "blatant violation of the UN Charter," and called on the UN Security Council to condemn the strike and take action.

The attack comes amid Israel's months-long offensive on the Gaza Strip, killing tens of thousands of Palestinians, with many countries fearing the conflict could escalate and spread into a regional war.