Iranian President Raisi: Zionist regime 'will certainly pay for this crime'

The Iranian regime is threatening Israel after Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Brig.-Gen. Razi Mousavi was killed in Syria during an alleged Israeli airstrike on Monday.

Mousavi, officially in charge of the Iranian-Syrian military alliance, was eliminated in Sayeda Zeinab, a suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus.

“Without a doubt, this action is another sign of frustration, helplessness, and incapacity of the usurping Zionist regime in the region,” said Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and warned that Israel “will certainly pay for this crime.”

The Iranian regime’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warned in a tweet that “Tel Aviv faces a tough countdown.”

Iranian forces officially entered Syria to assist the Syrian Assad regime against an uprising during the Syrian Civil War in 2011. However, at the same time, Syria plays a critical role in Tehran’s strategic ambition to influence the region from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. The ayatollah regime is also the driving military force behind pro-Iranian terrorist militias along Israel’s borders, including neighboring Syria.

The Jewish state has consequently conducted military operations against Iranian and Iranian-affiliated targets inside Syria over the past decade. However, Jerusalem has adhered to a policy to neither confirm nor deny any military strikes in Syria and the IDF spokesman, Rear-Adm. Daniel Hagari, did not comment on the elimination of the senior Iranian commander during a press conference on Monday.

Israel has been particularly concerned about systematic efforts by Iran to transfer game-changing weapons to its main terror proxy, the Hezbollah terror organization, which mainly operates in Lebanon but also maintains a presence in Syria.

The Jewish state believes the late Iranian general, Mousavi, played a critical role in supplying weapons to Iran’s various terrorist militias including Hezbollah.

Hezbollah quickly condemned Israel for the elimination of the top-ranking Iranian general.

"We consider the assassination of Brigadier General Seyyed Razi Mousavi in Syria to be a flagrant and shameless violation, which is off limits," Hezbollah said in an official statement on Monday.

The Iranian regime is ideologically committed to the Jewish state’s destruction and praised the Hamas terror group’s massacre of more than 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7.

While Tehran officially denies any direct involvement in the Hamas invasion and attack, the ayatollah regime provides critical financial and military support to terror groups such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, pro-Iranian militias in Syria and Iraq, and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

In late October, The Wall Street Journal reported that Iran had trained Gazan terrorists before the Oct. 7 massacres.

Following Hamas’ unprecedented assault on Israel's southern border communities, its powerful ally Hezbollah initiated ongoing rocket and drone attacks against northern Israel.

Israel Defense Forces has responded by increasingly targeting Hezbollah positions inside Lebanon, on Israel's northern border.

In early December, the Alma Research and Education Center, an Israeli NGO dedicated to security issues related to Israel’s northern borders, warned that Hezbollah was preparing to invade Israel from the north just as Hamas had invaded from the south, particularly the terror group's elite unit Radwan.

“The Radwan unit is fully trained and capable of launching an incursion into the Galilee at any given moment,” Alma warned in a recent report.

“Even if the majority of Hezbollah’s elite forces have distanced themselves from the border, there is no change to Hezbollah’s overall readiness,” the center added.