Azerbaijan said on Friday that it had disrupted a series of planned terrorist attacks and intelligence operations allegedly linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), deepening an already fast-rising confrontation between the two neighbors after a drone strike in the Nakhchivan exclave.
Azerbaijan’s State Security Service said the alleged plot targeted several locations and individuals inside the country, including the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, the Israeli Embassy in Baku, a leader of the Mountain Jewish community, and an Ashkenazi synagogue. Azerbaijani media reports, citing the agency, said explosives including C-4 were discovered in and around Baku, while investigators also uncovered what they described as plans to assassinate a public figure.
The security service said preventive operations had stopped the attacks before they could be carried out. According to the reports, several Azerbaijani citizens were convicted and sentenced, while international arrest warrants were issued for several foreign nationals allegedly involved in the case.
The announcement came one day after Azerbaijan accused Iran of launching drones into its Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. In an official statement, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said drones launched from Iranian territory struck the airport terminal in Nakhchivan and fell near a school building, injuring civilians and damaging infrastructure. Baku condemned the incident and said it reserved the right to take appropriate response measures.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev described the incident as a terrorist act and warned that any repeat would be met with a response. On Friday, Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said Azerbaijan was evacuating diplomatic staff from its embassy in Tehran and consulate in Tabriz for safety reasons.
Iran has denied responsibility for the drone strike and said it does not attack neighboring countries. The latest accusations, however, are likely to push relations between Baku and Tehran to one of their most dangerous points in years, especially as Azerbaijan increasingly frames the threat as involving both direct military pressure and covert sabotage operations.
