Iran has threatened to attack Israel in retaliation for the destruction of a chemical weapons processing center near Damascus, using Syria as its proxy.

Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Deputy Chairman, Brigadier-General Masoud Jazayeri condemned last Wednesday’s air strike on the Jamraya Scientific Research Center, which most of the world assumes was carried out by the Israeli Air Force.

Jazayeri said in a bellicose statement broadcast Sunday on official Iranian Press TV that Syria’s response to the attack on the military research center will “render the Zionist regime comatose.”

A number of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard troops were killed in the attack, which analysts said involved the use of at least one “bunker-buster” bomb in order to destroy the facility, located deep underground.

“Syria’s response to the recent aggression of the Zionist regime (Israel) against this country will send this regime into a coma,” the Iranian general said in his statement. “American and Israeli officials have come to fully realize that the self-restraint of the Syrian nation will not be unending,” Jazayeri said.

“The global arrogance and Israel are on the verge of collapse… In the new era, the criminals should know that behind their every blow lies a massive retaliatory blow, whose time, level and magnitude will be determined by the resolve of the free and anti-hegemonic nations,” he warned.

The Iranian news outlet claimed the “military research center” is located 15 miles (25 kilometers) northwest of Damascus. Others say the facility, which has been identified as a site in which chemical weapons are processed, at a distance of only three miles (five kilometers) from the Syrian capital, and just eight miles (12 kilometers) from the border of Lebanon.

Syria alleges last Wednesday IAF warplanes attacked the Jamraya military research facility, and a convoy heading towards the Lebanese border carrying Russian-made surface-to-air missiles.

In keeping with its security policy, the Israeli government has declined to comment officially on the attack. Unofficially, military sources have acknowledged that Israel did indeed attack the convoy — and explained why.