Armed attack on the Azerbaijani embassy in Iran

Embassy of Azerbaijan after an attack in Tehran, Iran, January 27, 2023. via REUTERS - WANA NEWS AGENCY

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A security guard was killed on Friday January 27 and two other people were injured in a shootout at the Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran.

The assailant was arrested and the embassy evacuated. 

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According to the first elements of the investigation, the man arrested after killing a person at the Azerbaijani embassy, ​​​​would have acted for “

personal and family

reasons” , said the chief of police of Tehran, General Hossein Rahimi.

Later, he indicated on television that the aggressor, who entered the embassy "

with his two young children

", is an Iranian man married to an Azerbaijani woman.

Embassy guards injured

"

A national of Azerbaijan was killed in the attack who appears to be a member of the embassy and, according to colleagues, the first secretary of the embassy

," said the Iranian police chief.

Two other embassy guards were injured and are in " 

satisfactory condition

 ", according to a statement from the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

Millions of Azeris live between Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia.

Iran, which has long accused its neighbor of stoking separatist sentiment in its territory, fears that Azerbaijani territory could be used for a possible offensive against Iran by Israel, the main arms supplier to Baku.

Conviction

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani strongly condemned in a statement "

the armed attack (...) which unfortunately resulted in the death of one person

".  

Russian diplomacy declared itself “

shocked

” by this attack.

"

We express our condolences and support to our Azerbaijani colleagues

," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Telegram. 

The Azerbaijani president denounced a “ 

terrorist

 ” attack against his embassy and it was evacuated.

(

With

AFP)

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