Bulgaria closes Tehran embassy as Iran-Israel conflict intensifies
Bulgaria has closed its embassy in Tehran and evacuated diplomatic staff and their families to neighboring Azerbaijan as the conflict between Iran and Israel intensifies, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov told local media on Friday.
Zhelyazkov said 12 people from the embassy and their families were evacuated after Israel advised residents to evacuate the third district of Tehran.
'The Bulgarian embassy is in the immediate vicinity of this area and we decided to have our diplomats leave the country,' he said, adding that the embassy would continue to operate from Baku.
The staff drove six hours in a convoy to the border, where they waited another six hours because of border checks, he said.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- Al Arabiya
Israeli military says attacked dozens of military targets in Iran, including nuclear sites
The Israeli military said on Friday it carried out strikes on dozens of military targets in Iran overnight, including an attack on the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND), which it said is involved in Iran's nuclear weapons development. Developing...

Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- Al Arabiya
Israel–Iran air war enters second week as Europe pushes diplomacy
Israel and Iran's air war entered a second week on Friday, and European officials sought to draw Tehran back to the negotiating table after President Donald Trump said any decision on potential US involvement would be made within two weeks. Israel began attacking Iran last Friday, saying it aimed to prevent its longtime enemy from developing nuclear weapons. Iran retaliated with missile and drone strikes on Israel. It says its nuclear program is peaceful. Israeli air attacks have killed 639 people in Iran, said the Human Rights Activists News Agency. Those killed include the military's top echelon and nuclear scientists. Israel has said at least two dozen Israeli civilians have died in Iranian missile attacks. Reuters could not independently verify the death toll from either side. Israel has targeted nuclear sites and missile capabilities, but also has sought to shatter the government of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to Western and regional officials. 'Are we targeting the downfall of the regime? That may be a result, but it's up to the Iranian people to rise for their freedom,' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday. Iran has said it is targeting military and defense-related sites in Israel, but it has also hit a hospital and other civilian sites. Israel accused Iran on Thursday of deliberately targeting civilians through the use of cluster munitions, which disperse small bombs over a wide area. Iran's mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment. With neither country backing down, the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany, along with the European Union foreign policy chief, were due to meet in Geneva with Iran's foreign minister to try to de-escalate the conflict on Friday. 'Now is the time to put a stop to the grave scenes in the Middle East and prevent a regional escalation that would benefit no one,' said British Foreign Minister David Lammy ahead of their joint meeting with Abbas Araghchi, Iran's foreign minister. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping both condemned Israel and agreed that de-escalation is needed, the Kremlin said on Thursday. The role of the United States, meanwhile, remained uncertain. On Thursday in Washington, Lammy met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump's special envoy to the region, Steve Witkoff, and said they discussed a possible deal. Witkoff has spoken with Araghchi several times since last week, sources say. Trump, meanwhile, has alternated between threatening Tehran and urging it to resume nuclear talks that were suspended over the conflict. Trump has mused about striking Iran, possibly with a 'bunker buster' bomb that could destroy nuclear sites built deep underground. The White House said on Thursday Trump would decide in the next two weeks whether to get involved in the war. That may not be a firm deadline. Trump has commonly used 'two weeks' as a time frame for making decisions and has allowed other economic and diplomatic deadlines to slide. With the Islamic Republic facing one of its greatest external threats since the 1979 revolution, any direct challenge to its 46-year-long rule would likely require some form of popular uprising. But activists involved in previous bouts of protest say they are unwilling to unleash mass unrest, even against a system they hate, with their nation under attack. 'How are people supposed to pour into the streets? In such horrifying circumstances, people are solely focused on saving themselves, their families, their compatriots, and even their pets,' said Atena Daemi, a prominent activist who spent six years in prison before leaving Iran.


Arab News
2 hours ago
- Arab News
Armenian prime minister set for ‘historic' Turkiye visit
ISTANBUL: Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is set to make a rare visit to arch-foe Turkiye on Friday, in what Yerevan has described as a 'historic' step toward regional peace. Armenia and Turkiye have never established formal diplomatic ties, and their shared border has been closed since the 1990s. Relations are strained over the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire — atrocities Yerevan says amount to genocide. Turkiye rejects the label. Ankara has also backed its close ally, Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan, in its long-running conflict with Armenia. Pashinyan is visiting Turkiye at the invitation of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Armenian parliament speaker Alen Simonyan told reporters. 'This is a historic visit, as it will be the first time a head of the Republic of Armenia visits Turkiye at this level. All regional issues will be discussed,' he said. 'The risks of war (with Azerbaijan) are currently minimal, and we must work to neutralize them. Pashinyan's visit to Turkiye is a step in that direction.' An Armenian foreign ministry official told AFP the two leaders will discuss efforts to sign a comprehensive peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as the regional fallout from the Iran-Israel conflict. On Thursday — a day before Pashinyan's visit — Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev traveled to Turkiye for talks with Erdogan and praised Turkish-Azerbaijani alliance as 'a significant factor not only regionally but also globally.' Erdogan repeated his backing for 'the establishment of peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia.' Baku and Yerevan agreed on the text of a peace deal in March, but Baku has since outlined a host of demands — including changes to Armenia's constitution — before it will sign the document. Pashinyan has actively sought to normalize relations with both Baku and Ankara. Earlier this year, he announced Armenia would halt its campaign for international recognition of the 1915 mass killings of Armenians as genocide — a major concession to Turkiye that sparked widespread criticism at home. Pashinyan has visited Turkiye only once before, for Erdogan's inauguration in 2023. At the time he was one of the first foreign leaders to congratulate the Turkish president on his re-election. Ankara and Yerevan appointed special envoys in late 2021 to lead a normalization process, a year after Armenia's defeat in a war with Azerbaijan over then-disputed Karabakh region. In 2022, Turkiye and Armenia resumed commercial flights after a two-year pause. A previous attempt to normalize relations — a 2009 accord to open the border — was never ratified by Armenia and was abandoned in 2018.