Iran executes man convicted over 2023 attack on Azeri embassy that killed 1 person

Iran has executed a man accused of carrying out a 2023 attack on the Azerbaijan Embassy in Tehran, killing its security chief and wounding two others in an incident that escalated tensions between the neighboring nations, state media reports.

The state-run IRNA news agency reports the unidentified man’s execution, without offering details, after his conviction. Typically, Iran hangs its condemned.

Iran called the January 2023 attack a personal dispute after the gunman’s wife “disappeared” on a visit to the embassy, but Azeri President Ilham Aliyev called it a terrorist attack. Baku accused Tehran of supporting hardline Islamists who tried to overthrow its government, a charge Tehran denied.

Following the attack, the embassy was closed and its staff left the country. In April 2023, Azerbaijan expelled four Iranian diplomats. A month later, Iran expelled four Azeri diplomats. Azerbaijan reopened its embassy in a different location in July 2024.

Azerbaijan borders Iran’s northwest and was part of the Persian Empire until the early 19th century. There are also over 12 million ethnic Azeris in Iran who represent the Islamic Republic’s largest minority group.

Azerbaijan’s diplomatic ties with Israel have long been a point of contention with the Islamic Republic.