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Politics
2023-January-28  14:55

FM: Azeri Embassy Attack No Act of Terrorism

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian strongly condemned a deadly armed raid on Azerbaijan's Embassy in Tehran, and said that the enemies of the two countries should not be allowed to take advantage of the tragic incident which the top diplomat noted was not an act of terrorism.

“We should not allow this incident to have any adverse consequence on ties between the two countries,” Amir Abdollahian said in a phone conversation with Azerbaijan Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov on Friday.

The Iranian foreign minister expressed his sympathy with Bayramov over the attack, which killed the head of the security service of the embassy and wounded two embassy guards earlier in the day.

He added the two countries’ security bodies can probe the incident in close cooperation to clarify its various aspects.

Later on Friday, the Iranian diplomat visited those wounded at a hospital in Tehran.

After his visit, he held a joint press conference with the Azeri ambassador, during which he said Iran’s intelligence and security organizations believe the attack was not a “terrorist and organized operation”, but rather, it was carried out with personal motives.

“Immediately after the incident, the president issued a firm order to follow up the incident legally and judicially, and to conduct legal and judicial follow-ups on each and every one of those who may have been negligent in this matter,” the minister stated.

Following the assault, Tehran police chief Brigadier General Hossein Rahimi said the gunman, who entered the Azerbaijani embassy and started shooting with a firearm, was arrested.

“In the initial investigation, the attacker stated that his motivation was personal and family problems,” Gen. Rahimi continued, adding the man is an Iranian national married to an Azerbaijani woman.

Iranian President Seyed Ebrahim Rayeesi has also ordered a thorough investigation into the attack on Azerbaijan’s diplomatic mission.

President Raeisi “ordered a full investigation” into the issue and “expressed condolences to the govt, people & family of the murdered diplomat & prayed for the recovery of the injured,” Mohammad Jamshidi, a political aide to the Iranian president, said in a post on his Twitter account on Friday.

The gunman has said in an interview with the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) that he only wanted to “save his wife".

“She must be able to leave the embassy of her own will, and if she doesn’t want to live with me, I’ll help her get her passport, and she’ll be free to go,” he claimed, under the apparent assumption that her wife was in the embassy.

Asked whether that was the only motive he had, he noted, “Yes, I did it to save her.”

His daughter, however, stated she tried to convince him that her mother was not in the embassy, “but he disagreed".

“He said we were going to the embassy to get my mother out of there,” she continued, stating, “My father started shooting in the embassy because of family issues and other things."