An Iranian diplomat has been assassinated in the Syrian capital city of Damascus, al-Arabiya reported on Wednesday.
The report was attributed to a statement by Syrian rebel forces and could not be independently verified.
Iranian officials denied the reports, saying that their diplomatic staff in Syria was all accounted for and healthy, according to Ynet news.
“Nothing bad happened to them,” said Mahmoud Shaybani, the Iranian ambassador to Syria.
Iran has stuck by embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad, even as much of the rest of the world has called for his ouster.
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Tehran is seen as having close diplomatic and military relations with Syria, though those ties have been tested during the Syrian civil war, which has seen upwards of 17,000 deaths since March 2011, according to the United Nations.
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Iran was recently tapped by the UN to help solve the Syrian civil war, with envoy Kofi Annan saying that no solution could find buy-in without Tehran’s input.
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