US approved Israel's deadly Damascus consulate strike: Iran

Iran's foreign minister has accused the United States of approving a deadly strike blamed on Israel that destroyed Tehran's Damascus consulate last week after he inaugurated a new consulate in the Syrian capital.

Tehran, a key Damascus ally, has vowed to avenge last Monday's air strike on the Iranian embassy's consular section that killed seven Iran's Revolutionary Guard members, including two generals.

"America is responsible for this incident and must be held accountable," Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told reporters in Damascus on Monday.

The strike came against the backdrop of Israel's ongoing war on Gaza.

Damascus and Tehran blame Israel for last Monday's raid, but it has not commented.

"The fact that the US and two European countries opposed a (UN Security Council) resolution condemning the attack on the Iranian embassy is a sign that the US gave the green light to the Zionist regime (Israel)" to carry out the attack, he claimed.

Asked about Abdollahian's remarks, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh denied Washington was connected to the attack.

"I can very forcefully push back on that and say the US military had no involvement in that strike that took place in Damascus," she told journalists.

On April 2, a day after the consulate strike, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby had dismissed as "nonsense" comments by Amir-Abdollahian that Washington, Israel's main backer, bore responsibility for the attack.

'Escalation of Israel's campaign'

On Monday, Abdollahian also inaugurated the new consular section in a Damascus building in the presence of his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad, state news agency SANA said.

He also met Syrian President Bashar al Assad.

An AFP correspondent at the inauguration said the new consulate was not far from the premises destroyed by the strike in the upscale Mazzeh area, which also houses other foreign embassies and UN offices.

Iran's foreign minister began a regional tour Sunday in Oman, long a mediator between Tehran and the West, where Muscat's foreign minister called for de-escalation.

An adviser to Iran's supreme leader warned on Sunday that Israeli embassies were "no longer safe" after the Damascus attack.

Analysts saw the raid as an escalation of Israel's campaign against Iran and its regional proxies that runs the risk of triggering a wider war beyond Israel's war on Gaza.