Azerbaijan on Monday suspended work at its embassy in Iran following an attack of a gunman, who killed one security guard at the mission and wounded two others.
Despite Tehran saying that the shooter was motivated by “personal reasons,” Baku labeled it a terrorist attack and ordered an evacuation of the mission’s staff.
"The operation of Azerbaijan's embassy in Iran has been temporarily suspended following the evacuation of its staff and their family members from Iran," Azerbaijani foreign ministry spokesman Ayxan Hacizada told AFP.
"That doesn't mean that diplomatic ties had been severed," he noted, adding that Baku's consulate general in Iran’s northwestern city of Tabriz is "up and running."
Earlier on Saturday, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev told his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi that he hoped "this violent act of terror would be thoroughly investigated." The shooter armed with a Kalashnikov was arrested. According to Tehran's police, he is an Iranian man married to an Azerbaijani woman.
Related Story: Fatal Shooting at Azerbaijan Embassy in Iran Raises Tensions
