Oil At 6-Month High As Alleged Israel Airstrike On Damascus Fuels Concerns Over Wider Middle-East Conflict

An alleged Israeli airstrike has reportedly killed a top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in an attack on a consulate building in the Syrian capital Damascus.

A Lebanese security source told Reuters that one of the dead in an attack that flattened an Iranian consulate building in Damascus was IRGC Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi.

Five other people were reported to have been killed in the attack, including a number of Iranian diplomats, although the ambassador, Hossein Akbari, was said to have been unharmed.

Israel did not comment on whether it was responsible for the attack, but it has maintained a campaign of cross-border air strike attacks on Iran-backed militant groups such as Hezbollah during its war against Hamas in Gaza.

These included a strike on the Aleppo province in northern Syria on Friday, which killed nearly 40 people and against Hezbollah targets within Lebanon.

Global Responses

The Syrian Ministry of Defense said in a post on X that the “Israeli enemy” launched an aerial attack from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights, publishing a short video of a building that had been reduced to rubble.

“Our air defenses confronted the enemy’s missiles, downing some of them. The aggression resulted in the complete destruction of the building and the martyrdom and injury of everyone inside,” the Ministry said.

President Joe Biden, who has repeatedly urged diplomacy, sending his own envoys to the region in efforts to curb escalation of violence in the Middle East, was reportedly aware of the strike and White House spokesperson Karine Jean Pierre said “the team is looking into it.”

Trey Yingst, a Middle Eastern correspondent for Fox News posted on X: “This is one of the most significant developments of the conflict so far and it will have serious repercussions across the Middle East. The target, location and timing are all significant.”

He added: “Expect significant threats from Iran in response to the strike in Damascus. Remember Iranian proxies have been in direct, sustained conflict with Israel since October. Real potential for escalation.”

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Oil Prices Hit Six-Month Highs

The potential for escalation in the Middle East has seen oil prices rise in recent weeks.

Concerns over disruption to global oil supplies if the conflict between Israel and Hamas escalated beyond the confines of Israel to the broader Middle East have seen Nymex West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark U.S. crude oil future price, rise 17% since the start of the year and now stands at a six-month high of around $83.90 a barrel.

The United States Oil Fund USO, an exchange traded fund that track the price of U.S. oil, has climbed 19.4% over the same period and on Monday hit a six-month high of $79.60.