The assailant attacked Abedin Khorram, the new governor of East Azerbaijan province, “for personal reasons,” the official IRNA news agency said, adding that the attacker is a member of the IRGC.
Khorram later told state TV he did not know the attacker and that he “forgives” him.
The prosecutor’s office of Tabriz, the provincial capital of East Azerbaijan, has ordered an investigation into the incident, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
Khorram was one of the IRGC commanders taken hostage by Syrian opposition forces in the early years of the Syrian conflict.
He was released in 2013 along with 47 other Iranians in exchange for 2,130 prisoners held by the Syrian regime.
