Havana, April 10 (RHC)-- The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) has strongly denounced the Israeli airstrike on the consular section of the Iranian Embassy in the Syrian capital city of Damascus, describing the assault as heinous and a blatant violation of international law.

The coordinating bureau of the 120-member forum of countries, in a communiqué released on Wednesday, stated that such acts of violence against diplomatic and consular missions are unjustifiable.

It said that “the Non-aligned Movement strongly condemns the heinous attack conducted by Israel against Iranian diplomatic premises and representatives in Damascus, the Syrian Arab Republic, which took place on April 1, 2024, and resulted in more than a dozen of casualties, including seven Iranian personnel and six Syrian civilians, and the complete destruction of the Islamic Republic of Iran's diplomatic premises."

“The Coordinating Bureau of the NAM expresses deep solidarity with and condolences to the people and government of the Islamic Republic of Iran as well as the family and loved ones of the victims of the attack,” the communiqué read.

It went on to reaffirm that such attacks against diplomatic premises and representatives are a flagrant violation of international law and the Charter of the United Nations, and also contravene the foundational principle of inviolability of diplomatic premises and representatives as enshrined in the Vienna Convention of Diplomatic Relations (1961), the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (1963) and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Internationally Protected Persons including Diplomatic Agents (1973).

NAM emphasized that “such acts of violence against diplomatic and consular missions and representatives, regardless of motive or perpetrator, can never be justified and underlines the obligation of all states to ensure the security and safety of the members and premises of diplomatic and consular missions, as well as their inviolability.”

On April 1, Israeli warplanes bombed the Iranian consulate in Damascus, located next to the embassy building in Damascus’s Mezzeh district.  The attack killed two senior Iranian military personnel who were on an advisory mission to Syria as well as five of their accompanying officers.

Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps said Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, and his deputy General Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi were among the seven martyrs of the terrorist attack.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has vowed that Iran will “punish” Israel and make the evil regime “regret” its crime of assassinating the country's military advisors in Syria.

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raeisi has also said Israel had resorted to indiscriminate assassinations after back-to-back failures in the face of the resistance, warning that the regime’s latest crime against Iranian military advisers in Syria “will not go unanswered.”