Tehran, Baku not to let ties to be affected by ill-wishers

Raeisi made the remarks in a phone conversation with the President of the Azerbaijan Republic Ilham Aliyev on Saturday night.

He offered condolences to his Azerbaijani counterpart over the death of the head of the security service of the Azeri embassy in Tehran who was killed in an attack on the embassy on Friday morning. 

Referring to the measures taken by relevant agencies to follow up on the embassy attack which killed the head of the security service of the embassy and wounded two embassy guards, the Iranian president expressed his sympathy with the people and government of Azerbaijan.

The friendly and fraternal relations between the two nations of Iran and Azerbaijan are based on unbreakable cultural and historical ties, Raeisi said, adding that the governments of Iran and Azerbaijan do not allow their relations to be influenced by the insinuations of the ill-wishers of the two nations.

Aliyev, for his part, thanked Iranian President for expressing sympathy with Azerbaijan, saying that it was an unexpected crime, but the cooperation of the two countries in this field should be so strong that no one can find opportunity to disturb the friendly relations of the two countries under the pretext of such incidents.

Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has condemned the Friday armed attack on Azerbaijan’s embassy in Tehran, saying the enemies should not be allowed to take advantage of the incident, which he said 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.

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 said, adding the man is an Iranian national married to an Azerbaijani woman.

MNA/