Azerbaijan reopens its embassy in Iran as the two countries try to ease tensions

The embassy of Azerbaijan in Tehran resumes its work today after more than a year of negotiations between the two countries to ease tensions, Iran’s semi-official media outlets report.

A source in the Azeri embassy in Tehran tells The Associated Press that the embassy has resumed its operations in the Iranian capital, but says it won’t be officially announced until the Iranian foreign ministry confirms the development.

But Azeri website news.az quotes Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry as saying that its embassy in Iran has restarted work at a new address in Tehran. The report adds that the embassy reopened following negotiations between Azerbaijan and Iran.

Relations between Tehran and Baku, which have been tense for a long time, soured further after a gunman in January 2023 stormed Azerbaijan’s embassy in Iran’s capital, killing its security chief and wounding two guards.

Iran said the attack was based on a personal cause, and said the gunman’s wife had disappeared after a visit to the embassy, but Azeri President Ilham Aliyev called the assault a “terrorist attack.” Baku accused Tehran of supporting hardline Islamists who tried to overthrow its government, a charge Tehran denied.

In April 2023, Azerbaijan expelled four Iranian diplomats from Baku. A month later, Iran expelled four Azeri diplomats, who had been working in Azerbaijan’s Embassy in Tehran and its consulate in the northwestern city of Tabriz.

The attack spiked long-simmering tensions between the two neighboring countries.

Relations between the two also remain tense because Azerbaijan in March 2023 opened an embassy in Israel. Azerbaijan maintains close ties to Israel, which Tehran views as its top regional enemy. Iran has repeatedly opposed improving relations between Azerbaijan and Israel.