TEHRAN- According to Iran’s UN mission, the UN Security Council’s criticism of Israeli strike on its consular office in the Syrian capital may have thwarted reprisal.

"Had the UN Security Council condemned the Zionist regime’s reprehensible act of aggression on our diplomatic premises in Damascus and subsequently brought to justice its perpetrators, the imperative for Iran to punish this rogue regime might have been obviated," it said on the social media platform X Thursday.

Iran has vowed to exact revenge for the April 1 Israeli strike that claimed the lives of six Syrians and seven Iranian military advisors at its diplomatic annex in Damascus.

Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, declared on Wednesday that “the evil Zionist regime must be punished and will be punished for the invasion.”

Referring to the recent Israeli strike, Ayatollah Khamenei emphasized the sanctity of diplomatic missions, stating, “The consulate and diplomatic missions in any country are considered to be the territory of that country. When they attack our consulate, it means they have attacked our soil."

Ayatollah Khamenei strongly criticized Western governments for their role in the months-long Israeli onslaught against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip. 

He expressed his dismay at the actions of Western nations, particularly in their support for the Israeli regime, which has led to a devastating toll on innocent civilians in the enclave.

“In this year's events, Western governments exposed the evil nature of Western civilizations. During the last six months in Gaza, the Western governments, themselves, put on display this evil nature before the eyes of the world," the Leader said.

“They killed children in their mothers' arms and patients in hospitals. Their strength does not match that of the resistance fighters, so they claim the lives of old men, families, children, and women, and killed more than thirty thousand innocent people.”

The Leader added, “Where are those whose cacophonous voice on human rights deafen the ears of the world? Are these not human beings? Don’t they have any rights?”

Last week, the United States, Britain and France opposed a Russian-drafted UN Security Council statement that would have condemned the attack.

“Russia had drafted a press statement condemning the Israeli attack on the diplomatic premises in Syria but was stopped by the insistence of our Anglo-Saxon colleagues,” Moscow’s UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya told reporters.

“This serves as a clear illustration of the double standards employed by the Western ‘troika’ and their actual, rather than declarative, approach to legality and order in the international context,” Russia’s deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy said in a post on X.

The UN Security Council had previously denounced attacks on diplomatic property in remarks. 

The 15-member Council must unanimously approve on press releases. According to diplomats, the U.S., supported by France and Britain, maintained that there was no unanimity at the conference because of the Western troika and that many facts about what transpired in Damascus remained unknown.