Speaking at a meeting of the Security Council of Azerbaijan, President Ilham Aliyev recalled the January 2023 attack on the Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran, and claimed that Iranian intelligence services were behind it.
“We all remember well how some time ago the Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran was subjected to a terrorist attack. A person instructed by the Iranian intelligence services carried out a bloody terrorist attack against Azerbaijani citizens… And we [i.e. Azerbaijan] had no doubt at that time that the Iranian state was behind it, because that terrorist attack lasted about 40 minutes, both inside and around the embassy.
During those 40 minutes, not a single member of the [Iranian] security forces or police approached the embassy. It was obvious that this terrorist attack was ordered by the highest levels of the Iranian government in order to intimidate Azerbaijan and carry out vile intentions against it. As you know, Azerbaijan reacted very harshly to this event. The Azerbaijani embassy was evacuated from Iran, and all diplomatic relations were severed. The Iranian side was forced to apologize to us and admit its guilt.
The perpetrator of this terrorist attack was given the most severe punishment at our request. Even the Iranian government, which had not shown any interest in carrying out this sentence for a long time and had even tried to save the criminal, was forced to execute the terrorist in front of Azerbaijani representatives,” the Azerbaijani leader said.
