Embassy Attack Should Not Sour Tehran-Baku Ties: FM
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Warning about hostile attempts to misuse Friday’s deadly attack on the embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian stressed that the incident should not be allowed to affect the friendly ties between the two neighbors.
In a telephone conversation on Friday evening, Amirabdollahian and his Azeri counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov talked about the armed attack that killed a staff member of the Republic of Azerbaijan’s embassy in Tehran and injured two others in the morning.
Amirabdollahian expressed regret at the incident and offered condolences to the Azerbaijani foreign minister and the family of the deceased diplomat.
Condemning the attack, the top Iranian diplomat warned that the enemies of the two countries could take advantage of this incident. He said Baku and Tehran should not let their ties be affected by the attack.
The Iranian foreign minister also proposed that the security authorities of Iran and Azerbaijan pursue and look into the attack in close cooperation to shed light on all aspects of the incident.
He further extended Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's regret and sympathies to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, the government and people of the Azerbaijan Republic, and particularly the families of those killed and injured.
Bayramov, for his part, thanked the Iranian president and foreign minister for offering condolences over the incident and welcomed Amirabdollahian's proposal that the security authorities of Iran and Azerbaijan Republic as well as their judicial officials should work together to get to the bottom of the incident.
On Friday, the Iranian president ordered a thorough investigation into the attack.
“We condemn the attack at the entrance of the embassy of our brotherly neighbor, the Republic of Azerbaijan,” Mohammad Jamshidi, a political aide to the Iranian president, said in a post on his Twitter account on Friday.
He said Raisi has “ordered a full investigation” into the issue and “expressed condolences to the government, people and family of the murdered diplomat and prayed for the recovery of the injured.”
One person was killed and two others were injured after an assailant opened fire at the embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Tehran on Friday morning.
Commander of Tehran’s Police General Hossein Rahimi said the assailant entered the embassy building with a firearm and opened fire at the site.
During the initial interrogation process, the assailant cited “personal and family problems” as the motive behind the shooting attack, the police chief added.
The Republic of Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the attacker broke through the guard post, killing the head of security with a Kalashnikov assault rifle.