On 1 April 2024 Israel attacked the Iranian Consulate in Damascus, Syria. The attack killed seven members of the Islamic Revolutinary Guard, including two senior members. The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961) governs the status of such missions. Article 22 of the Convention spells out some of the protections for diplomatic sites:
Article 22
1.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.
2.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.
3.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.
The Israeli attack clearly violated the Convention, and is tantamount to an act of war, given the special status of Embassies and Consulates. The UN Security Council has thus far failed to condemn this action. Iran claims that the attack was made by US-made F-35s. the most advanced fighter jets in the US arsenal and are jets that the US jealously keeps from most of its allies. Significantly, however, Israel did not tell the US that it was going to attack.
Iran has vowed to retaliate for the attack and there are signs that Israel is preparing for the retaliation. There are signs that the US intends to support Israel if it is attacked. According to The Hill:
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Gallant on Monday and again on Thursday to discuss the current situation and “reaffirm the U.S. ironclad commitment to Israel’s security against threats from Iran and its proxies,” Ryder said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken also spoke with Gallant on Wednesday to reiterate that same message, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at the time.
And President Biden publicly warned Tehran on Wednesday during a White House Rose Garden press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
“We also want to address the Iranian threat to launch a … significant attack on Israel. As I told [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu], our commitment to Israel’s security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad,” Biden said.
I hope that these words are merely diplomatic fluff. Prime Minister Netanyahu committed an act of war against Iran with US-supplied weapons but without US knowledge or support. If he thinks that provoking Iran into an open conflict advances the interests of Israel, he is profoundly and criminally mistaken. The US should not allow itself to be manipulated into a larger, and unwinnable, war.
World Politics News 
Thank you, Vinnie for your clarity. It is so painful to believe that my tax dollars are being employed in carrying out genocide that I had overlooked the criminal nature of this provocation. It is so sad that so few people recognize that the insanity perpetrated by both Hamas and the Israeli government does not represent the will of the Palestinian and Israeli people. Instead, innocents on both sides are suffering for the sake of the desire of their leaders to stay in power. It is beyond tragic that humankind is forced to attend to such deadly and misguided posturing, while environmental degradation is accelerating calamitously. God help us.
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