Ebrahim Raisi Deplores Israeli Murder of Iranian Commander

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has condemned the murder of the senior commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), martyr Seyed Razi Mousavi, in an Israeli missile strike in Damascus, capital of Syria.

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Raisi expressed his condolences to the family of the commander and said that Israel's "malicious move is another sign of its desperation, weakness and impotence in the region." 

In a statement posted on his office's website, the Iranian President pledged that "Israel will certainly pay the price for its crime."

For his part, Iranian Defense Ministry spokesman Brigadier General Reza Talai Nik called for worldwide condemnation and punishment of the Israeli crime. Israel will receive a decisive and intelligent response, the spokesman said. 

"Undoubtedly, those responsible for this crime deserve to be punished, and the perpetrators of this act should expect the consequences of their recent operation. Waiting to pay the price for this operation will torment the regime and its elements to death," he stated.

The Iranian ambassador in Damascus, Hosein Akbari, also denounced the murder of the senior Iranian commander. Mousavi was martyred at his home after returning from work by three missiles. This is a cowardly terrorist act by the Zionist regime in violation of international conventions, the ambassador said. 

"Perhaps it can be said that the Zionist regime is taking stupid steps today to compensate for some of its failures in relation to the internal problems and conditions in Gaza, where it has achieved virtually none of its objectives after 80 days of war," he added.

The Iranian IRGC had announced that one of its experienced commanders serving as a military advisor had been killed in an Israeli missile strike in Damascus.

Seyyed Razi Mousavi was "responsible for supporting the resistance front in Syria" and was one of the comrades of the late Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani, killed in a January 2020 drone strike near Baghdad International Airport, an IRGC statement said. 

Earlier this month, the IRGC reported that two of its soldiers had been killed by Israeli forces while on an advisory mission to the Islamic resistance front in Syria.

Iran has said it has a consultative role in Syria and that its presence in the country has been at Damascus' request. For its part, Israel has been targeting what it calls Iranian-linked positions in Syria for years.