US says it had no involvement or prior knowledge of attack on Iranian consulate

The United States told Iran it was not involved and had no prior knowledge of Monday's attack on an Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, a U.S. official said.

The communication comes amid concern about the possibility of the war between Israel and Hamas expanding into a broader regional conflict. Iran has vowed retaliation after an attack it blames on Israel killing two of its top commanders and five others at its consulate in Syria.

“The United States had no involvement in the attack and we did not know this in advance,” said a National Security Council spokesperson.

The US “communicated this directly to Iran”, said the US official.

On Monday, the State Department said the US was gathering more information about the attack in Damascus, but expressed concerns about any new regional conflict.

“Before we gather information about what exactly this is, I don't want to talk specifically about it, but of course we have always been concerned about anything that could be an escalation or cause an increase in the conflict in the region,” said the spokesperson for Department of State, Matthew Miller.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian largely held the US responsible for the attack and said “the United States should respond.” Amir-Abdollahian said Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned the Swiss chargé d'affaires in Tehran in the early hours of Tuesday (2) local time to discuss the incident, given Switzerland's role in representing US interests in the Will.

The US has accused Iran of supporting proxy attacks against US and Western targets since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

In January, a drone strike killed three American soldiers at a US outpost in Jordan, which the US attributed to the Iran-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq umbrella group, although the incident caught Tehran by surprise and worried the local political leadership, officials told CNN at the time, citing US intelligence.

Source: CNN Brasil

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