Azerbaijani MFA spokesman: Iran's decision damages bilateral relations

Iran has declared four Azerbaijani citizens persona-non-grata, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Aykhan Hajizada said, answering questions.

As it is known, at the beginning of April of 2023, the Azerbaijani government declared four employees of the Iranian embassy in Baku persona-non-grata due to activities that do not correspond to diplomatic status and contradict the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

“The Iranian side, in turn, a few days after this step of Azerbaijan, without any reason and citing the principle of reciprocity as an excuse, declared 2 employees of our country's embassy in Iran and 2 employees of the Consulate General, who were evacuated in January, as undesirable persons,” the spokesperson said in a statement published on the official website of the Foreign Ministry.

Hajizada remarked that this step taken against Azerbaijan harms bilateral relations, where there are a number of problems.