Azerbaijan has accused Iran of a drone attack that struck the region of Nakhchivan, hitting an airport and injuring two civilians.
The strike would be the first Iranian attack on a Caucasus state since the start of the US-Israel war on the country, and raises the prospect of the conflict spreading beyond the Middle East.
Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry said the drone hit the terminal building at the only airport in Nakhchivan, an Azerbaijani exclave bordering Iran. A second drone fell close to a school in a nearby village, the ministry said.
Baku said it reserved the right to take retaliatory measures.
Iran later denied any connection to the drone attack on Nakhchivan airport. “The Islamic Republic of Iran has not targeted the Republic of Azerbaijan,” Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, said in comments carried by Iran’s Tasnim news agency. “We do not target our neighbouring countries.”
Footage circulating on social media appeared to show a drone directly striking the airport before a fire broke out.
“We demand that the Islamic Republic of Iran clarify the matter in the shortest possible time, provide an explanation and take the necessary urgent measures to prevent such incidents from recurring in the future,” the Azerbaijani foreign ministry said in a statement.
Azerbaijan, an oil-rich authoritarian nation that has adopted a neutral stance in the Middle East conflict, has recently developed closer ties with Israel and the Trump administration while gradually moving away from Moscow, the traditional power broker in the Caucasus.
The country hosts no US military bases, a sign Iran may be expanding its strikes beyond nations directly linked to accommodating American forces.
Zaur Shiriyev, a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said it was still unclear whether Iran specifically intended to strike Nakhchivan airport. But he added that if confirmed, the attack would be a serious incident and difficult to dismiss as an accident.
“Airports are critical infrastructure, so this is bound to raise serious questions,” he said.
The timing of the apparent strike was notable. A day earlier, Azerbaijan’s strongman president, Ilham Aliyev, had visited the Iranian embassy in Baku to offer condolences over the killing of the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, who died in US-Israeli strikes last week.
Baku’s growing military cooperation with Israel has caused growing friction with Tehran, though the two neighbours have largely maintained pragmatic relations. Both countries are majority Shia Muslim, and Iran is home to millions of ethnic Azeris – estimates range from about 15 to more than 20 million – many living in the north-western provinces bordering Azerbaijan.
The drone incident will raise tensions in the Caucasus regions. Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia have all proclaimed neutrality in the war, keen to avoid being drawn into the widening instability. Armenia and Azerbaijan, which share borders with Iran, fear the prospect of a migration crisis if the conflict escalates or the Iranian state collapses, potentially sending large numbers of refugees north across their frontiers.
Further attacks on Azerbaijan could have far-reaching consequences for global air travel, which has already been heavily disrupted by airspace closures across the Middle East. Azerbaijan’s airspace has become a key corridor for flights between Asia and Europe seeking to avoid Russian airspace, and any disruption could create fresh headaches for airlines.
Possible Iranian targets in Azerbaijan could include the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which carries crude that accounts for about 30-40% of Israel’s oil imports.
Azerbaijan’s threats to retaliate against Iran could also place Turkey in a difficult position. Ankara maintains longstanding diplomatic and trade relations with Tehran, but it is also bound by close strategic and military ties with Baku. Under mutual defence agreements between the two countries, Turkey has pledged to provide assistance – including military support – if Azerbaijan is subjected to armed aggression.
