TEHRAN – Tehran will take Israel to court for the regime’s Monday attack on the Iranian embassy in Damascus which has led to the death of at least 13 people including a top military general and his deputy. 

“The National Security Council will make decisions in this regard. The government will release the details once everything has been set,” Vice President for Legal Affairs Mohammad Dehghan told reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting. 

Multiple Israeli fighter jets lobbed missiles at Iran’s embassy in the Syrian capital, flattening the consular part of the compound. Iran has vowed to make Israel regret the illegal and barbaric act. 

According to international law, the act of attacking an embassy of another country is deemed a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. This convention explicitly states that embassies are considered inviolable and should be safeguarded from any form of intrusion or harm. 

Any assault on Iran's embassy located on Syrian territory therefore constitutes a grave transgression of international law, necessitating appropriate diplomatic repercussions, sanctions, or other retaliatory measures to uphold the sanctity and integrity of diplomatic missions worldwide. 

Incidents involving attacks on diplomatic missions and premises are exceedingly rare occurrences that evoke significant repercussions. A notable case in point dates back to 1999 when NATO bombed China's embassy in Belgrade, resulting in the tragic deaths of three Chinese journalists. 

Following the attack then U.S. President Bill Clinton publicly issued an apology, attributing the bombing to an an unintended error. Subsequently, Washington entered into negotiations with Beijing and agreed to provide compensation to the victims, and their families, and offered restitution for the damages inflicted upon the embassy.

The aftermath of this event left a lasting impact on diplomatic relations between the involved parties. China, to this day, continues to denounce the Western powers for the attack on its embassy. In a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry in May of 2023, coinciding with the 24th anniversary of the tragic incident, China reiterated its condemnation of what it perceives as NATO's barbaric act in bombing the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia. 

The West has so far refused to condemn the Israeli attack and has instead opted to blame Iran for its support towards resistance forces and asked it to exercise “restraint”. Iran, however, has clarified multiple times that it reserves the legitimate right to respond to the unprecedented assault.