Dutch, Danish embassy staff in Tehran to move to Azerbaijan

Denmark and the Netherlands announced Tuesday that they are relocating their respective embassy staff in Tehran to Azerbaijan.

The move follows Spain, Austria and Italy, which are among the countries to have temporarily closed and relocate their embassies to Baku in recent days as the US-Israel war on Iran continues.

"Due to the growing security risks for our employees, it has been decided to temporarily transfer the activities of the Dutch embassy in Iran to Baku, Azerbaijan," Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen said on X.

"If the security situation allows, we will decide when and in what form our embassy in Iran can resume its activities in Tehran," he added.

Denmark's Foreign Minister Foreign minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said its decision had been taken a few days ago was not communicated until the Danish staff had left Iran.

Lokke Rasmussen said while the embassy was closed "diplomatic relations with Iran are handled from Copenhagen."

This comes as Germany temporarily pulled staff from its embassy in Baghdad out of Iraq because of heightened security risks amid the conflict in the Middle East, a foreign ministry spokesperson said late on Monday.

"The personnel of the German embassy in Baghdad has now been temporarily relocated from Iraq because of the threat situation," the spokesperson said, adding that the safety of staff was being continuously assessed.

The embassy remains reachable, though its legal and consular services had already been severely limited for some time due to the security situation, the spokesperson said.

Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, speaking in Nicosia, Cyprus, late on Monday, said he had discussed the regional situation with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Both condemned what Wadephul called Iran's "indiscriminate attacks" against countries in the region and urged Tehran to halt them.