Iran Executes Man Over Deadly 2023 Attack on Azerbaijan Embassy
Iran on Wednesday executed a man who was convicted of murder after he stormed the Azerbaijani Embassy in Tehran in 2023 and killed its head of security, according to Mizan, the news outlet of the Iranian judiciary.
The attack strained an already tense relationship between the two countries. Iran had said the man, an Iranian national named Yasin Hosseinzadeh, was motivated by personal issues, but President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan called it a terrorist attack.
Mr. Hosseinzadeh was convicted of murder, and the death sentence was upheld by Iran's supreme court in January, according to state media.
During the trial, the attacker told the court that he went to the embassy with an AK-47 assault rifle because he thought his wife was hiding there and was not willing to meet with him, the judiciary statement said.
The relationship between Iran and Azerbaijan has long been fraught. Azerbaijan was upset by Iran's support for Armenia in a decades-long territorial conflict, while Iran has been suspicious of Azerbaijan's alliance with Turkey as well as its close ties with Israel.
There were signs of a thaw between the neighboring countries last month. President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran visited Mr. Aliyev in Azerbaijan, and both leaders said the relationship had improved. The Iranian and Azerbaijani militaries also held joint military drills this week, Iranian state media reported.
Azerbaijan closed its embassy in Tehran after the 2023 attack and withdrew its diplomatic staff. The embassy reopened last year in a new building after the attacker was sentenced. Azerbaijan's foreign ministry said in a statement at the time that Iran had taken appropriate security measures at the new embassy, but did not mention the attack.
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