The attack took place at the embassy entrance in Tehran on Friday.
“A man armed with a Kalashnikov killed the head of the diplomatic mission’s guards,” reads a statement from Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry.
Two guards were injured. A sentry at the entrance was fired upon, there are bullet holes in the embassy’s gate and film clips recorded during the course of events show how a lifeless person was lying inside the doors and bleeding.
From the Iranian side, it is said that the attack appears to have had a “personal” motive. Tehran’s top police chief claims in the country’s state media that the perpetrator’s wife had been “detained in the embassy for nine months”.
Azerbaijan has decided to evacuate the entire embassy and does not see it as an isolated incident.
“All responsibility for the attack lies with Iran,” Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ayxan Hacizada told domestic media, accusing Iran’s state media of encouraging an event like this through “anti-Azerbaijani” messages.
Azerbaijan is located northwest of Iran and the countries’ relationship has been strained, among other things, by the fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Scores of ethnic Azeris live in Iran – more than in Azerbaijan – and Iran has repeatedly accused Azerbaijan of fueling separatist aspirations in the country. Unlike Iran, Azerbaijan also has good relations with Turkey and Israel.
See images from the attack in the clip above