Mexico to Iran, why are attacks on embassies so controversial?

International law decrees that embassies are ‘inviolable’. Attacks on embassies have breached that, prompting anger.

Mexico and Ecuador are locked in a diplomatic spat after Ecuadorian police raided the Mexican embassy in Quito on Friday to arrest former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas.

Glas had been seeking political asylum in the Mexican embassy since December and was convicted twice of corruption.

But the Ecuadorian police assault on the Mexican embassy was not the only attack on a diplomatic mission in recent days. On April 1, Iran’s consulate in the Syrian capital, Damascus, was destroyed in a suspected Israeli missile attack. Several Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military advisers were present at the consulate when the attack took place, and seven were killed according to an IRGC statement.

These incidents have sparked a wave of condemnation that has gone beyond traditional allies of Mexico and Iran. So why is it that attacks on diplomatic missions are such a big deal, and how have Mexico and Iran reacted?

Following the attack on the embassy in Quito, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador wrote in an X post that the incident constituted an “authoritarian act” and “a flagrant violation of international law and sovereignty of Mexico”.