Iran: one dead in an attack on the Azerbaijani embassy

UPGRADE DAY

A man was arrested Friday in Tehran after killing a person in the Azerbaijani embassy, ​​​​Iranian police said, speaking of personal motives according to the first elements of the investigation. 

Earlier, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry reported an armed attack on the embassy that left “one dead and two injured”.

According to Tehran police, the attacker was immediately arrested.

“The assailant against the Azerbaijan embassy has been arrested,” Tehran's police chief, General Hossein Rahimi, told Iranian news agency Tasnim.

According to him, “This person had entered the embassy with his two young children”.

“During the preliminary investigation, the attacker cited personal and family problems as a motive,” he said. clarified.

Later, the same general indicated on television that the aggressor is an Iranian man married to an Azerbaijani woman.

“He claims his wife has been held at the embassy for nine months,” he said, without further details. 

“A national of Azerbaijan was killed during the attack which appears to be a member of the embassy and, according to colleagues, the first secretary of the embassy,” he added. 

Video posted on social media shows the presence of several police officers and members of the security forces in front of the embassy.

The images show the body of a man on the ground, covered with a sheet and surrounded by medical personnel.

In a statement, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said earlier that a “man armed with a Kalashnikov” had killed “the head of the diplomatic mission's guard”.

Two other embassy guards were injured and are in “satisfactory condition”, according to the same source.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani strongly condemned in a statement “the armed attack (…) which unfortunately resulted in the death of one person”. “According to the preliminary investigation, these are personal reasons,” said Mr. Kanani.

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.

Iran, where resides millions of Azeris, an ethnic group living mainly in Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia, have long accused their neighbor of stoking separatist sentiment in its territory.

Relations between Baku and Tehran are traditionally delicate, Turkish-speaking Azerbaijan being a close ally of Turkey, a historical rival of Iran.

Tehran also fears that Azerbaijani territory will be used for a possible offensive against Iran by Israel, the main arms supplier in Baku.