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Azerbaijan Reopens Its Embassy in Iran as the Two Countries Try to Ease Tensions

The building of the Azerbaijan Embassy is seen in Tehran, Iran, Jan 27, 2023. (PHOTO / AP)
The building of the Azerbaijan Embassy is seen in Tehran, Iran, Jan 27, 2023. (PHOTO / AP)
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Azerbaijan Reopens Its Embassy in Iran as the Two Countries Try to Ease Tensions

The building of the Azerbaijan Embassy is seen in Tehran, Iran, Jan 27, 2023. (PHOTO / AP)
The building of the Azerbaijan Embassy is seen in Tehran, Iran, Jan 27, 2023. (PHOTO / AP)

The embassy of Azerbaijan in Tehran resumed its work Monday after more than a year of negotiations between the two countries to ease tensions, Iran's semi-official media outlets reported.
A source in the Azeri embassy in Tehran told The Associated Press that the embassy has resumed its operations in the Iranian capital, but said it won’t be officially announced until the Iranian foreign ministry confirms the development.
But an Azeri website news.az Monday quoted Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry as saying that its embassy in Iran has restarted work at a new address in Tehran. The report added 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 hard-liners 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 also maintains close ties to Israel, which Tehran views as its top regional enemy. Iran has repeatedly opposed improving relations between Azerbaijan and Israel.
There have been tensions between the two countries as Azerbaijan and Armenia have fought over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Iran also wants to maintain its 44-kilometer (27-mile) border with landlocked Armenia — something that could be threatened if Azerbaijan seizes new territory through warfare.
Iran-Azerbaijan’s relations improved during the late Ebrahim Raisi, the former Iranian president’s era. In May, Iran and Azerbaijan inaugurated a dam of Qiz Qalasi, or Castel of Girl in Azeri, on a joint border river in northwest Iran. Aliyev attended the inauguration.
During the ceremony, Raisi said that the relationship between Tehran and Bakus is beyond neighboring and is “unbreakable.”
Raisi died in a helicopter crash — that also killed the country’s foreign minister and others — just after the inauguration ceremony. His body was found a day after the crash.

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Ukraine Says Russia Hit Vessel Carrying Ukrainian Grain to Egypt in Black Sea

A view shows a damaged civilian cargo vessel, carrying wheat grain to Egypt, which was hit by a Russian missile strike after it left Ukrainian maritime border in the Black Sea, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, September 12, 2024. Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERS
A view shows a damaged civilian cargo vessel, carrying wheat grain to Egypt, which was hit by a Russian missile strike after it left Ukrainian maritime border in the Black Sea, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, September 12, 2024. Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERS
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Ukraine Says Russia Hit Vessel Carrying Ukrainian Grain to Egypt in Black Sea

A view shows a damaged civilian cargo vessel, carrying wheat grain to Egypt, which was hit by a Russian missile strike after it left Ukrainian maritime border in the Black Sea, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, September 12, 2024. Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERS
A view shows a damaged civilian cargo vessel, carrying wheat grain to Egypt, which was hit by a Russian missile strike after it left Ukrainian maritime border in the Black Sea, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, September 12, 2024. Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERS

Ukraine accused Russia on Thursday of using strategic bombers to hit a civilian grain vessel with a missile in the Black Sea in NATO member Romania's maritime economic zone, in what it described as a "brazen attack" on freedom of navigation.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the vessel carrying Ukrainian grain to Egypt had been hit by a Russian missile just after it exited Ukrainian territorial waters, and that there were no casualties according to a preliminary assessment.

If confirmed, the incident would mark a sharp increase in tensions between Moscow and the NATO military alliance, which has tried to tack a course between fears of escalation and supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia since Moscow's invasion in February 2022, according to Reuters.

British maritime security company Ambrey said in a note that a Saint Kitts and Nevis-flagged bulk carrier had been struck by a Russian-launched missile after departing from the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk in Ukraine's Odesa region.

The vessel sustained damage to its port side, including a cargo hold and a crane, it said.

Traders said the incident had contributed to stronger wheat prices by adding to concern over tightening supply in the Black Sea export zone. US futures rose as much as 2% to hit a two-month peak.

Zelenskiy posted images showing the twisted metal of a damaged crane and other damage.

An industry source told Reuters the strike had taken place overnight not far from the mouth of the Danube river. Dmytro Pletenchuk, spokesman for Ukraine's navy, told Reuters, the vessel was in Romania's maritime economic zone.

Romania's Naval Authority said the vessel had not been in its territorial waters and that its assistance had not been requested in any way.

Zelenskiy wrote on X: "We are waiting for the world to react. Wheat and food security should never be targets for missiles."

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called the strike "a brazen attack on freedom of navigation and global food security."

Ukraine is a major global grain exporter that has had to battle Russia in the Black Sea to revive its exports through its sea ports since Russia's invasion imposed a de facto blockade.