Israel has declared war against Iran
Not formally, but factually, i.e. by bombing Iranian consulate in Damascus (Syria).
As you may have read/heard from the mainstream media, Iran’s consulate in Damascus (Syria) was hit earlier today, 1st April 2024, by an Israeli airstrike, causing the death of several people (at least seven), including five Iranian officials plus Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in the elite Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and his deputy, Sardar Haji Rahimi - see for instance Al Jazeera’s report, Al Mayadeen’s article and The Guardian Middle East Crisis Live.
Although Israel has not formally declared war against Iran, this airstrike is a clear act of war against Iran. After all, any embassy or consulate in any country is considered territory of the particular country it is representing. In fact, the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, stated that the attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus is “a breach of all international conventions”. Also, the Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said more specifically that this offensive attack is a gross violation of international regulations, especially the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Kanani refers in particular to article 22, which clearly states (all emphasis mine):
The premises of the mission shall be inviolable. The agents of the receiving State may not enter them, except with the consent of the head of the mission.
The receiving State is under a special duty to take all appropriate steps to protect the premises of the mission against any intrusion or damage and to prevent any disturbance of the peace of the mission or impairment of its dignity.
The premises of the mission, their furnishings and other property thereon and the means of transport of the mission shall be immune from search, requisition, attachment or execution.
Most likely Kanani refers also to articles 29 and 30:
Article 29
The person of a diplomatic agent shall be inviolable. He shall not be liable to any form of arrest or detention. The receiving State shall treat him with due respect and shall take all appropriate steps to prevent any attack on his person, freedom or dignity.
Article 30
The private residence of a diplomatic agent shall enjoy the same inviolability and protection as the premises of the mission.
His papers, correspondence and, except as provided in paragraph 3 of article 31, his property, shall likewise enjoy inviolability.
Paragraphs 1 and possibly 2 of Article 39 may also be applicable to this case:
Every person entitled to privileges and immunities shall enjoy them from the moment he enters the territory of the receiving State on proceeding to take up his post or, if already in its territory, from the moment when his appointment is notified to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs or such other ministry as may be agreed.
When the functions of a person enjoying privileges and immunities have come to an end, such privileges and immunities shall normally cease at the moment when he leaves the country, or on expiry of a reasonable period in which to do so, but shall subsist until that time, even in case of armed conflict. However, with respect to acts performed by such a person in the exercise of his functions as a member of the mission, immunity shall continue to subsist.
It is becoming more and more obvious every single day that Israel wants to escalate the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and that it considers itself above the (international) law. After all, they have never respected a single UNSC resolution… and all UNSC resolutions are binding by definition, no matter what the US ambassador at the UN says! The problem is that, since Israel enjoys the support of the Outlaw US Empire and its vassal states, i.e. NATO countries, it thinks that it can do whatever it wants. In fact, CNN and Politico have just reported that the Biden administration is about to approve a major $18bn package of arms transfers to Israel, including up to 50 US-made F-15 fighter jets, 30 AIM-120 advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles, and a number of joint direct attack munition kits, which turn dumb bombs into precision-guided weapons. So, of course Israel is going to continue to bombing Gaza and all its neighbouring countries, if the Outlaw US Empire keeps sending weapons and ammunition to Israel. Israel will stop only if someone in Washington stops the flow of arms and ammo to Israel, something that unfortunately is not going to happen anytime soon.
Getting back to declarations of Iranian officials, Kanaani also said that “Tehran will decide on the type of response and punishment against the aggressor” and a similar message was relayed on Twitter/X by Hossein Akbari, the Iranian ambassador in Syria:
With extreme brutality, contrary to all international conventions, they targeted my place of residence and the consular section of the embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran. We will reciprocate when we want.
In practice, Iran has just warned Israel that it accepts the challenge and that the war in the Middle East may escalate at any time now.
To add insult to injury, the Israeli parliament has just passed a law that allows to shut down the TV stations that, in their opinion, harm state security, as Al Jazeera reports (by the way this law is intended exactly to stop Al Jazeera broadcasting from Israel). Obviously it is an excuse to kick out the few reporters and broadcasters that insist on telling the truth. This means that from now on any TV station that connects with a correspondent speaking from Israel, is doing Zionist propaganda. Not that until now those who have spoken from Israel have been reporting the truth, simply because Israel has always issued accreditations for their own use. However, now we have official confirmation, now it is law: those very few who persist in telling what Israeli state terrorism really is, will be thrown out. No problem though for the western broadcasters.
UPDATE (02/04/2024): Former CIA analyst, Larry C. Johnson, has also written a piece on the same topic on his blog, “Son of a New American Revolution”. He rightly points out how the Outlaw US Empire (and its vassal states) have largely ignored the event, without condemning Israel’s blatant action. None of the western governments has said a word about it; yet, if an embassy or consulate of a NATO country had been hit by a Russian, Chinese or Iranian airstrike, they probably would have already retaliated.
Meanwhile, the Iranian Mission to the UN has also released a statement, saying that Iran has the right to respond to the Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, as reported by Al Mayadeen. Here it is:
The aggressor Zionist regime bears full responsibility for its consequences and the Islamic Republic of Iran reserves its legitimate and inherent right under international law and the United Nations Charter to take a decisive response to such reprehensible acts.
Al Mayadeen is also reporting that Iran's Supreme National Security Council held a meeting last night, presided by President Ebrahim Raisi, and has taken the necessary decisions. President Ebrahim Raisi was quoted saying (all emphasis mine):
Martyrs Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi were heroes of the Holy Defense, and were present in Syria under the title of "senior consultant".
[The] brutal Israeli attack on Iranian consulate [is] a new terrorist crime and a violation of international resolutions.
The Zionists must know that they will not achieve their goals; [the] crime of attack on consulate in Damascus will not go unanswered.
In any case, revenge is a dish best served cold and, as mentioned in previous statements by Iranian officials, they will decide when to reciprocate, i.e. not now or any time soon, meaning that they are going to inflict maximum damage to Israel when it does not expect it. Moreover, Iran, like Russia in Ukraine, is not in a rush and may retaliate in an asymmetric way and via one of its allies in the so-called Axis of Resistance (e.g. Hezbollah in Lebanon or the Houthis/Ansarullah in Yemen). I am pretty sure that Iran is going to give Israel a lesson that it will never forget, similar to the lesson Russia is giving to NATO in Ukraine. After all, Hezbollah is constantly hitting military targets in the north of Israel (just have a look at this Telegram channel for some videos) and the Houthis are already humiliating western navies in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, inflicting severe economic damage to Israel (e.g. the Israeli port of Eilat has seen an 85 percent drop in shipping activity, as reported by the Washington Post back in January 2024).
In the meantime, as reported by Al Mayadeen, later today the UNSC will convene to discuss the Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, as requested by the Iranian Mission to the UN and confirmed by Dmitry Polyanskiy, the Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN. However, I do not expect any significant development from this.