Tehran Times
January 30, 2023

Israeli regime scrambles to entrap Azerbaijan

After opening its embassy in Baku, Israel has scrambled to influence Azerbaijan to sever ties with its neighboring country, the Islamic Republic of Iran.

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It is worth saying that [Israel] made attempts to mar relations between Iran and the Persian Gulf states at first.

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The next aim of Israel was Azerbaijan because it has a border proximity with Iran. Therefore, it is easier for the Israeli regime to monitor Iran.

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Azerbaijan embassy in Tehran ceases operations

Azerbaijan’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Khalaf Khalafov, said on Sunday that the embassy’s operations in Tehran have been put on moratorium.

Five embassy staff members are remaining in Tehran to guard the premises and the embassy’s belongings, he added, noting that “we have entirely ceased the mission’s diplomatic activity.” However, he continued, “they won’t be involved in diplomatic efforts.”

The official said ordinary business will continue at the Azerbaijani consulate general in Tabriz.

On Sunday night, an aircraft carrying the Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran’s evacuated staff touched down in Baku.

The decision was allegedly made in response to the attack on the country’s embassy in Tehran on January 27 that left one security guard dead and two others injured.

President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan referred to the event as a terrorist assault and called for “punishment of the terrorists” in addition to a comprehensive inquiry into what happened.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry, as well as the judiciary and security authorities, emphasized that the suspect had committed the act for purely personal and familial motives rather any act of terror.

Hossein Amir Abdollahian, the Foreign Minister of Iran, denounced the armed assault on Friday and warned that the foes should not be permitted to profit from the tragedy, which he insisted was not a terrorist act.

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Mehr News Agency
January 31, 2023

Why Azerbaijan recent positions are not constructive?

The attack on Baku Embassy in Tehran, despite the attacker’s confession of conducting the act for personal reasons, was unfortunately followed by hasty comments by Azeri authorities.

The terms used in the position of some officials of the Republic of Azerbaijan, who were expected to seek to calm the atmosphere, actually caused the escalation of tension and the emergence of new challenges.

This is while all the proofs and pieces of evidence, including the confessions of the attacker, indicate that the motive behind this action was personal, and therefore, the use of false expressions such as terrorist or planned incident, which was made by the Azeri authorities, is totally unacceptable.

Also, due to the importance the Islamic Republic of Iran attaches to relations with Azerbaijan, the country immediately reacted to this incident at the highest level and took any measures possible to treat the injured, honor the killed diplomat, and alleviate the suffering of the embassy staff and their families.

On the other hand, the attacker, according to his own confessions, had visited the Azerbaijan Embassy several times to find out about the condition of his wife and did not receive any response. The Embassy of Azerbaijan also did not respond to the written request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran to determine the condition of the attacker’s wife.

It was expected that the reaction of the Azerbaijani government to this incident would be aimed at solving the problem, but the non-diplomatic stances that can be misused by the anti-Iran media to divert the relations between the two countries towards increasing tension will definitely not have a constructive effect.

This is while, although several terrorists and their supporters in the Shah Cheragh terrorist attack had Azerbaijani passports, the Islamic Republic of Iran never tried to view the issue as the existence of coordination between the terrorists and the Azerbaijani government.

On the other hand; the evacuation of Azeri diplomats from Iran and the suspension of the activities of Azerbaijan’s political mission in Tehran, which of course does not mean the termination of relations, while it is an unjustifiable action, is more like an attempt to create a propaganda atmosphere against Iran.