Iran Speaker: Emotional decisions can trigger consequences for ties

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Following a recent attack on the country's embassy in Tehran, Iran's Parliament Speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has asked the Republic of Azerbaijan not to make any emotional decisions.

Ghalibaf made the remark while speaking at the 17th Conference of the Parliamentary Union of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (PUIC) in Algiers, Algeria's capital.

An assailant entered Azerbaijan's embassy on Friday in Tehran holding a firearm and started shooting. The head of the security service of the embassy was killed and two embassy guards were wounded in the attack.

Soon after, Tehran's then-police chief, Brigadier General Hossein Rahimi, announced that the gunman had been taken into custody. 

In a phone call with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Jeyhun Bayramov, on Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian condemned the armed attack, saying enemies should not be allowed to exploit the incident, which he said was not a terrorist act.

“We should not allow this incident to have any adverse consequence for ties between the two countries,” Amir-Abdollahian said.

Iran’s top parliamentarian told the PUIC Conference, "We deeply regret this incident and are conducting a painstaking and thorough follow-up [investigation] on it," echoing other Iranian officials' earlier remarks. He added that Azeri officials are abreast of the full details of the investigation.

Ghalibaf added that it is necessary to emphasize that [making] emotional decisions on the two countries’ relations is what the common and ill-wishing enemies of the Islamic world, especially the Zionist regime, want. "It is necessary to be vigilant and careful about any decision that could have long-term consequences [for bilateral relations],” 

The Speaker reiterated that there is currently no evidence that suggests that the incident was a terrorist attack.