Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said the “Iranian establishment” was behind an armed attack on his country’s embassy in Tehran last month in which a security officer was killed and two others wounded.
(Bloomberg) — Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said the “Iranian establishment” was behind an armed attack on his country’s embassy in Tehran last month in which a security officer was killed and two others wounded.
In his first direct criticism of the authorities in Tehran over the incident, Aliyev said the failure of police to act immediately to stop the gunman and the fact that state TV interviewed the assailant shortly after he was detained indicated he was “sent by some branches of the Iranian establishment.”
Azerbaijan closed its embassy and evacuated staff and their families in response to what it called a terrorist attack. A normalization of relations with Iran will depend on a transparent investigation that will bring those responsible to account, Aliyev told reporters on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.
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Iranian police detained the gunman after the Jan. 27 attack and prosecutors said an initial investigation showed he acted from personal motives, an explanation rejected by Azerbaijan. The unprecedented assault on the embassy took place as tensions have spiraled between Iran and Azerbaijan over issues including Baku’s ties with Israel and its conflict with Armenia over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
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