Azerbaijan re-opens embassy in Iran after months of diplomatic row
- 15 July, 07:11
Azerbaijan reopened its embassy in Iran’s capital Tehran on July 15, a year and half after a deadly attack on the embassy building that strained the diplomatic ties between the two neighbouring countries.
Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry said on Monday that its ambassador and embassy staff have returned to Tehran. The diplomatic mission will work from new premises and Iran “will implement adequate steps to ensure diplomatic protection in front of the new building," the ministry stated. An unnamed official at the embassy told media that it had resumed operations but the formal announcement by the Iranian Foreign Ministry was still pending.
Azerbaijan shut down its embassy in Iran January 2023, after an armed attack on the building killed the mission’s security chief and wounded two other security officials. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev denounced the attack as a "terrorist act”, while Iranian officials claimed the attack was a personal dispute e after the gunman’s wife allegedly disappeared on a visit to the diplomatic mission. Baku also accused Tehran of supporting hard-liner Islamists seeking to overthrow the government in Azerbaijan, a charge that Tehran has vehemently rejected. The assailant was tried in a court for a year and sentenced to death, according to Iran’s Justice Ministry.
The deadly attack on the Azerbaijani embassy last year heightened the already tense diplomatic relations between Baku and Tehran. Azerbaijan evacuated its embassy staff and their family members from the mission after the attack and has also advised its citizens against traveling to Iran.
The embassy attack was followed by Baku’s expulsion of four Iranian diplomats in April. In a reciprocal move, Iran expelled four Azerbaijani diplomats from the country.
