The foreign ministries of Iran and Azerbaijan both confirmed in separate statements that a shooter entered the Azerbaijani embassy in the Iranian capital on Friday and murdered one person, alleging various justifications for the tragic act.
According to the Iranian Foreign Ministry, the attacker was detained by police and security personnel and is currently the subject of an investigation.
According to the foreign ministry of Azerbaijan, the attacker opened fire with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, killing the head of the embassy’s security staff and wounding two security guards.
The embassy workers and their families were later ordered to leave, according to Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, which attributed the attack to a “anti-Azerbaijani campaign” by Iran.
The assailant had “personal” motivations, according to Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s foreign minister. Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, described the attack as a “terrorist” act.
“It is unacceptable for terrorist acts to target diplomatic missions!” Aliyev made this statement in a tweet.
Since their divergent positions on a number of international and regional issues, particularly Azerbaijan’s support for Israel and Iran’s backing of Armenia in the conflict over the separatist province of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan, tensions between Baku and Tehran have been high.
A recent anti-Azerbaijani campaign against our nation in Iran, according to a statement from the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, “has encouraged such attacks against our diplomatic presence.”
In a video posted on Iran’s official media, the shooter can be seen driving into a parked car in front of the embassy before getting out and firing a machine gun while narrowly evading a security guard station.
The man was seen discharging the weapon inside the embassy in a different video that was posted on the Iranian state-run Fars News website.
The assailant was upset that the Azerbaijani embassy officials did not answer his queries during his numerous trips, according to Iran’s judiciary news agency Mizan, and that his missing wife had allegedly visited the embassy.
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