Iran to Azerbaijan’s Aliyev: Stop politicizing ‘bitter’ embassy attack

The spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry says Azerbaijan should avoid politicizing the “bitter” armed attack on the country’s embassy in Tehran late last month.

“Talking to media to present non-legal interpretations of this incident is not a constructive action in the path of the legal and judicial investigation into the case,” Nasser Kan’ani said in a statement on Sunday.

“It is better to avoid any prejudgement, politicization and promotion of the issue,” he said.

On January 27, an assailant entered Azerbaijan’s embassy in Tehran holding a firearm and started shooting. The head of the security service of the embassy was killed and two embassy guards were wounded in the attack.

The gunman, identified as Yasin Hosseinzadeh, claimed that his wife visited Azerbaijan’s embassy in April 2022 and never returned, leaving him frustrated.

Iran FM says personal motives, not terrorism, behind Azerbaijan embassy attack

Iran says enemies should not be allowed to take advantage of the incident.

Following the incident, Tehran’s Police Chief Hossein Rahimi said a preliminary investigation pointed to “family problems” as the motive behind the fatal shooting, but Azerbaijani officials, including President Ilham Aliyev, called it a “terrorist act.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian also said the country’s intelligence and security organizations believe the attack was not a “terrorist and organized operation,” but rather, it was carried out with personal motives.

In spite of Iran’s every effort to clear the air, Aliyev ordered the evacuation of the embassy two days later.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Aliyev claimed that entities related to the Iranian government were involved in the attack.

“Normalization of relations with Iran depends on a transparent investigation that will bring the perpetrators (of the attack) to justice,” he said.

Azerbaijan bent on straining ties with Iran by politicizing embassy incident

In the wake of Friday

Reacting to the Azerbaijani president’s claims, Kan’ani said the Iranian officials have time and again said that the case was going through its legal procedures and that what was released so far about the incident was the explicit notes of the gunman.

The Iranian spokesperson emphasized that all aspects of this tragic incident are under thorough investigation.

He once again expressed Iran’s readiness to give the results of the investigation to Azerbaijan, saying, “We are confident that in an atmosphere of cooperation and a constructive approach, the Azerbaijani officials will receive the necessary responses regarding all the ambiguities and the questions in their minds.”

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