Israel's 'criminal attack' on IRGC adviser will not go unanswered, Iran claims

Cohen highlighted Tuesday’s arrest in Greece of two men suspected members of a group that was planning an attack against an Israeli restaurant in Athens.

 Members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) attend an IRGC ground forces military drill in the Aras area, East Azerbaijan province, Iran, October 17, 2022. (photo credit: IRGC/WANA/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)
Members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) attend an IRGC ground forces military drill in the Aras area, East Azerbaijan province, Iran, October 17, 2022.
(photo credit: IRGC/WANA/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)

Foreign Minister Eli Cohen urged his Greek and Cypriot counterpart to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps as a terror entity hours after the IRGC accused the IDF of assassinating its military adviser Milad Haydari outside of Damascus.

“Iran is a danger to the world. Iranian terrorism harms the Middle East, Ukraine, Europe and other places,” Cohen said.

He spoke Friday in Nicosia as he met with Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos and Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias. He urged them to take action against the IRGC and to help sway the European Union to label it a terror organization.

"Iran is a danger to the world. Iranian terrorism harms the Middle East, Ukraine, Europe and other places."

Foreign Minister Eli Cohen

He highlighted Tuesday’s arrest in Greece of two men suspected members of a group that was planning an attack against an Israeli restaurant in Athens, a case which Israel said was orchestrated from Iran.

On Friday, the IRGC vowed that Israel’s “criminal attack” on the outskirts of Damascus at dawn would not go “unanswered,” the semi-official Iranian news outlet Tasnim reported.

Foreign Affairs Minister Eli Cohen seen during a press conference, at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem, on January 25, 2023. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)
Foreign Affairs Minister Eli Cohen seen during a press conference, at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem, on January 25, 2023. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

There was no immediate statement from Israel, which usually declines to comment on reports of strikes in Syria, where it operates aerially against Iranian targets. The airstrike was the sixth attack by Israel in Syria in March, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Cooperative relations and condemnation of terror attacks

Iran was only of many topics the foreign ministers discussed during their trilateral meeting. Cohen said that the cooperative relationship between the three countries was very important to Israel, particularly in light of the global challenges such as security and opportunities, such as energy.

Dendias condemned terror attacks against Israel. He spoke in favor of a regional security framework, the EastMed pipeline and “Greece’s goal of becoming an energy hub by diversifying both its own and the entire region’s supply of gas and electricity.”

The tripartite forum is using energy as a catalyst for peace and cooperation, he said.