During his visit to Germany, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev spoke about the state of Azerbaijan-Iran relations after the armed attack on the country's Embassy in Tehran on January 27, the Press Office of the Azerbaijani President reported.

During his participation in the Munich Security Conference on February 18, President Aliyev was asked by a journalist, "How do you see the normalization of relations between Iran and Azerbaijan? Who should make the first move?" 

In response to his question, he called the armed attack on the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Tehran a terrorist act. "This was an organized terrorist act against the Azerbaijani diplomatic mission. The terrorist was not disarmed for 30-40 minutes, and police cars and security personnel were coming and going, but they allowed him to enter the embassy building twice, kill one of the embassy security guards, and injure two others. The courage of one of the security guards, who disarmed the terrorist, may have saved the lives of dozens of Azerbaijanis. Because the families of our diplomats, including their children, lived in that building," he added.

President Aliyev demanded an immediate and transparent investigation into the terrorist attack against the Azerbaijani Embassy. "The fact that the terrorist gave an interview to the Iranian media after this terrorist incident shows that he is one of those sent by some branches of the Iranian establishment. Another strange thing was that two days later, he was declared mentally retarded. How could they conduct this examination immediately? It was a move to divert him from justice. Therefore, the Iranian government should conduct a transparent investigation, we should be informed about it, and the terrorist should be punished. But the most important thing is that those who sent the terrorist, the representatives of the Iranian establishment who committed this cruel act against Azerbaijan, should be brought to justice. Only then can we talk about any normalization of relations," Aliyev emphasized.

On February 20, Nasser Kanaani, the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran, called on Baku to avoid prejudice and not to make politicized statements about the attack on the diplomatic mission. The representative added: "All aspects of this tragic incident are being looked at and carefully studied in a specialized manner." Kanaani said that Iran is ready to share the results of this investigation with the Azerbaijani side.

As previously reported by Caucasus Watch, on January 27, an armed attack on the Azerbaijani Embassy in Iran took place. Azerbaijani government-controlled media blamed Iran and accused the Iranian side of conducting a terrorist attack on the Azerbaijani Embassy in Iran.

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