(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 27. An armed attack
took place at the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Iran early morning
today. As a result of this attack, head of the security service was
killed, while two embassy guards were wounded.
The gunman turned out to be a man in his 50's, who drove up to
the administrative building, armed with a Kalashnikov automatic
rifle.
Earlier reports from the Chief of Tehran Police said there were
two children in the car with the gunman, the security camera footage released later proved the
man was alone.
According to the informed sources, the culprit of the incident
is Yasin Huseynzade, an Iranian citizen, and there are suspicions
that he is connected with the special services of Iran, primarily
with the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps].
A broad campaign against Azerbaijan that has been observed in
the Iranian press and Iranian offices in recent months has led to
this attack.
However, this treacherous terrorist attack against the
Azerbaijani Embassy in Tehran is not an unprecedented case.
Back in 1979, during a student demonstration taking place on
Talegani street (previously Takhte-Jamshid) at 09:00 on November 9,
several thousand protesters of the student demonstration approached
the US Embassy. Moments later, several hundred people launched the
assault.
The Embassy security team used teargas, however, the crowd
holding Ayatollah Khomeyni's photos managed to open gates and
penetrate the perimeter. The police arrived at the scene, however,
the efforts to disperse the crowd did not yield results. The
premises of the Embassy have been captured in the span of two
hours.
The students demanded the surrender of Shah Pahlavi, who was in
New York for medical reasons. The US diplomats, disarmed marine
soldiers, and officers, totaling 90 people were held hostage. Later
non-Americans, people of African descent, and women were liberated.
However, 52 people remained in captivity for 444 days.
Much later, in November 2011, attacks on the two diplomatic
representations of the UK in Tehran were carried out by the
participants of a demonstration as a response to the introduction
of additional sanctions against Iran. Protesters, armed with
stones, lowered the flag in one of the buildings of the Embassy and
burned it. After that, they raised the flag of the Islamic Republic
in the Embassy building.
Prior to the protests, the Iranian Guardian Council (special
supra-parliamentary authority), supported the legislation
introduced a day prior, to decrease the level of diplomatic
relations with the UK to the level of chargé d'affaires. The
document also includes the rejection of a number of economic
cooperation projects.
Decreasing the level of diplomatic relations and the protests in
Tehran were retaliatory measures against the additional sanctions
imposed by the UK against Iran.
The UK opted to impose additional sanctions as a result of a new
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report, which said that
Iran worked on creating a nuclear weapon and this work may be
continuing. The US, Israel, and a number of Western countries
suspect Iran of trying to create nuclear
According to eyewitnesses, the crowd smashed the security post
in front of the embassy and smashed the wall stand. It was reported
that about 30 participants of the incident were detained.
On Saturday, January 2, 2016, after the Saudi authorities
announced the execution of 47 people, including a Shiite preacher,
Iran was shaken by a wave of protests. The Saudi Embassy in Tehran
and the consulate in Mashhad were attacked, and popular
demonstrations began. In addition, the execution in Saudi Arabia
was condemned by many politicians. The protests served as an excuse
for Riyadh to sever diplomatic relations with Tehran, accusing it
of 'interfering in the internal affairs of the UK'.
The attack that took place on the diplomatic mission of
Azerbaijan is a continuation of the anti-Azerbaijani hysteria and
the policy of escalation that Iran has been pursuing for a long
time.
It is obvious that these provocations for all these many years
are nothing but orders from the Iranian authorities and special
services themselves.
The real situation is as follows: if the embassy guards had not
stopped the attack, all embassy employees would have been killed.
At the same time, the police in the area have not made any attempts
to prevent the terrorist attack, and currently, no operational
actions are being taken.
The statement of the Iranian side is a lie and is aimed at
diverting attention from the terrorist associated with the Iranian
special services and creating a false opinion in the local and
international community. The video footage from the surveillance
camera at the Azerbaijani Embassy also proves that the statements
of the Iranian side are false.