Israeli expert: Iranian authorities behind terrorist attack in Tehran
Avraham Shmulevich talks to Caliber.Az

INTERVIEWS  30 January 2023 - 11:06

On the morning of 27 January, the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Tehran was attacked by a gunman. As a result, the embassy's security officer Orkhan Asgarov was killed and two other people were wounded. The attacker was detained; he was Iranian citizen Yasin Huseynzadeh.

According to Tehran's version, the attack was motivated by "personal problems". However, the special services of the neighbouring country for some reason were unable to ensure the security of the Azerbaijani diplomatic mission on its territory. After all, a man armed with a machine gun broke into the territory of the embassy. If he is an ordinary citizen, then how could he buy a gun and bring it to the Iranian capital, near the embassy? He could have had some "assistance" there as well.

The President of Azerbaijan condemned the terrorist act committed against our embassy in Tehran and demanded the prompt investigation of this terrorist act and the swiftest punishment for the terrorists. The foreign ministries of various states also expressed their indignation and condolences.

Avraham Shmulevich, Israeli political analyst specializing in the Caucasus, Islamic world, and the Middle East, chairman of the Institute for Eastern Partnership (Jerusalem), shared his thoughts on the incident with Caliber.Az.

"As many have probably noticed, the inaction of the Iranian embassy guard speaks volumes. We see that a terrorist crashes his car into an Azerbaijani car standing in front of the embassy. And this happens right in front of a booth where an armed Iranian policeman is sitting. But he does not react in any way, not even drawing his weapon. Then the terrorist jumped out of the car with a machine gun in his hands, took several steps towards the embassy door, and burst in. We can also see on the tape the terrorist waving at the policeman, 'Stay where you are', and he does indeed stay where he is! And even after the terrorist bursts into the embassy with an automatic gun, the Iranian policeman remains where he is," Shmulevich said.

All this, in the expert's opinion, clearly shows that the attack was coordinated with the Iranian special services because one has to understand how people who provide security for diplomatic missions are trained.

"All over the world, and I think Iran is no exception, there are standards for embassy guards, and according to them, this guard should have opened fire at the moment when the terrorist crashed into the car. He should have been neutralised before he jumped out of the car. That is how embassy guards are trained all over the world. In this case, even the most untrained policeman would have reacted differently. And this one does not even come out of the booth when a terrorist with a machine gun is inside the embassy.

So, we can see that this is a demonstrative terrorist act aimed at intimidating Azerbaijan. The terrorist act was definitely coordinated with the Iranian authorities," Shmulevich said.

He recalled that Iran has a long history of attacks on foreign missions, starting with the famous seizure of the US embassy during the revolution.

"There have been repeated seizures of foreign nationals who were on Iranian territory on entirely spurious charges. Then these people were used as hostages to put pressure on their countries. We know about the terrorist acts sanctioned by the Iranian authorities, for example, the bombing of the Jewish Centre in Argentina. In other words, Iran is a terrorist state. It is not safe for anyone to be on Iranian territory, including, as we can see, diplomats. A state that uses terror to pressure other countries, which has territorial claims to all its neighbours, including Azerbaijan.

By the way, the official Iranian version of the reasons for the terrorist attack does not hold water. They can make up anything they want. Azerbaijan should keep in mind what country it is next to. I recall repeated statements by high-ranking Iranian officials that they claim at least a part of Azerbaijani territory. Some used to say that they do not recognize the existence of Azerbaijan at all. I recall Iran's support of anti-Azerbaijani activity on the part of Armenia, on whose side it was during all the years of confrontation over Karabakh, and the position that Tehran is taking in this issue now practically contributes to the fact that this region is not passed completely under Baku's control. There are contacts between Iran and Armenia in the supply and production of weapons.

So, the Azerbaijani society must understand that it has a mortal foe in the person of the IRI leadership, whose goal is the destruction of independent Azerbaijan. This is the regime of pseudo-Muslim pseudo-Shia ayatollahs, which has seized power in Iran. It aims to destroy Azerbaijan, among others, and does not disdain any terrorist actions to achieve these goals," the political scientist concluded.

Caliber.Az