Amid alert in US, Iran again warns Israel of retaliation, says "attack won't remain unanswered"

Tehran [Iran], April 6 (ANI): Iran has once again reiterated its willingness to respond to the Israeli strike on its embassy in Syria and said that the attack "won't remain unanswered," CNN reported, citing Iran's semi-official news outlet, Tasnim on Saturday.
This comes as the Iranian top general attended the funeral procession of military officer Mohammed Reza Zahedi on Saturday, vowing Iran would respond to the strike on its embassy consulate in Damascus that killed top figures from its Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Bagheri, who is the country's highest-ranked military commander, said it will be up to Iran to decide how and when to respond to the attack, according to the Tasnim report.
He also issued a warning to the US, saying the "main responsibility" for the Damascus attack lies with the US, according to Tasnim.
Bagheri's remarks on Saturday were heard by a huge crowd gathered in the western city of Isfahan for Zahedi's funeral procession. Video from news agencies and state media shows mourners thronging the streets to catch a glimpse of the officer's coffin, which travelled in a highly decorated open cortege.
Many mourners could be seen waving Iranian and Palestinian flags.
Earlier, Iran's Deputy Chief of Staff for Political Affairs, President Mohammad Jamshidi said that Iran has warned the US in a written message to step aside and not to be harmed, Iran's state news agency, IRNA reported.
In a post on X, Jamshidi said that Iran has also warned the US not to fall into Netanyahu's trap.
He said that the US has also demanded Iran not to hit American targets.
Following Iran's claim that it has sent a warning to the US to step aside from its escalated tensions with Israel and prompt the US to issue a high alert and actively prepare for a "significant" attack by the Iranian side on Israel or American assets in the region, CNN reported, citing a senior administration official.
The warning was sent to the US after an Israeli missile attack on Iran's diplomatic premises in Syria killed one of its top commanders.
CNN reported that senior US officials believe, based on input from their Israeli counterparts, that the attack by Iran is "inevitable."
The two governments are furiously working to get in position ahead of what is to come, as they anticipate that Iran's attack could unfold in a number of different ways and that both US and Israeli assets and personnel are at risk of being targeted.
A forthcoming Iranian attack was a major topic of discussion on President Joe Biden's phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.
As of Friday, the two governments did not know when or how Iran planned to strike back, the official said.
A direct strike on Israel by Iran is one of the worst-case scenarios that the Biden administration is bracing for, as it would guarantee rapid escalation of an already tumultuous situation in the Middle East. Such a strike could lead to the Israel-Hamas war broadening into a wider, regional conflict--something Biden has long sought to avoid.
Israel has carried out numerous strikes on Iran-backed targets in Syria, often targeting weapons shipments intended for Hezbollah, a powerful Iranian proxy in Lebanon. But the targeting of the embassy itself marks a significant escalation since embassies are considered the sovereign territory of the nations they represent, CNN reported.
Iran vowed to take revenge after Israel's airstrike on Iran's embassy complex in Syria, which killed at least seven officials. Mohammed Reza Zahedi, a top commander in Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), and senior commander Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi were among those killed, according to Iran's Foreign Ministry.
At least six Syrian citizens were also killed, Iranian state television reported on Tuesday.
Zahedi, a former commander of the IRGC's ground forces, air force, and the deputy commander of its operations, is the most high-profile Iranian target killed since then-US President Donald Trump ordered the assassination of IRGC Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in 2020.
The US was quick to inform Iran that the Biden administration was not involved and had no advance knowledge of Monday's strike on the embassy and has warned Iran against coming after American assets.
"The United States had no involvement in the strike and we did not know about it ahead of time," a National Security Council spokesperson told CNN earlier this week.
The US has warned Iran not to use the Israeli strike in Damascus as "a pretext to attack US personnel and facilities," a State Department spokesperson told CNN Friday.
The warning was sent in response to a message from Iran, the spokesperson said. Iran's message to the US blamed America for the Damascus attack, a senior administration official said, though it was not clear what, if anything else, Iran conveyed to the US in that initial message.
"As Iran noted publicly, we received a message from them," the State Department spokesperson told CNN when asked about Jamshidi's post. "We responded by warning Iran not to use this as a pretext to attack US personnel and facilities. We did not 'ask.'"
A senior administration official described the US' warning to Iran as, "Don't think about coming after us."
Israel has intensified its military campaign against Iran and its regional proxies following the October 7 attack on Israel by Tehran-backed Palestinian group Hamas, which killed about 1,200 people and saw more than 200 taken hostage, CNN reported.
Israel's subsequent war in Gaza has killed more than 32,800 people, according to the Ministry of Health in the besieged enclave, wrought widespread destruction and brought more than 1 million people to the brink of a man-made famine. (ANI)