Azerbaijan thwarts alleged terrorist attack on Israeli Embassy as Foreign Minister Sa’ar visits Baku
Azerbaijan’s State Security Service (DTX) has foiled an alleged attack by an Islamic State-linked terror cell targeted at the Israeli Embassy in Baku, Israeli media wrote on Tuesday. The news coincided with a visit by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar to Baku, although it was unclear whether the plot was connected.
Three Azerbaijani nationals who were ‘preparing to commit a terrorist attack to the embassy of the foreign country in Baku on the grounds of religious hostility’ were arrested as they were ‘approaching the area where the embassy was located’, the DTX said in a statement issued on Monday.
While the DTX statement did not name the embassy in question, the Israeli media outlet Ynet wrote that it was the Israeli Embassy, which was later corroborated by the Times of Israel and other outlets.
The three individuals were reportedly linked to the same group — the Islamic State Khorasan — that carried out the deadly attack on the Crocus City Hall theatre on the outskirts of Moscow in 2024, killing almost 150 people.
The plot also comes three years after a deadly attack on Azerbaijan’s Embassy in Iran and just months after a rabbinical conference in Baku was cancelled over security threats.
Sa’ar holds high-level meetings, discusses tensions with Iran
In his trip to Azerbaijan, Sa’ar met with a number of high-ranking officials, including President Ilham Aliyev, and held a joint press conference with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov.
During the meeting, Sa’ar singled out Iran for criticism in an extended statement as Bayramov looked on. The moment was later clipped and shared widely on social media, including by the official account of Israel’s Foreign Ministry.
Israeli FM @gidonsaar: “There is a massacre of unimaginable proportions taking place in Iran. A massacre of a people by the regime that rules them. If this is how they act toward their own people - how should they be expected to act toward other countries?” pic.twitter.com/myAJU351tW
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) January 26, 2026
In a post about his meetings, Sa’ar described Aliyev as a ‘visionary leader’ — the same exact term he also used to describe Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev during his visit to the country on Tuesday.
‘We had a fascinating meeting in Baku, and I thanked the president for his friendship and support for Jewish life in Azerbaijan’, Sa’ar said.
In the official Azerbaijani readout of the meeting between Sa’ar and Aliyev, ‘emphasis [of the talks were] placed on the successful development of relations between the two countries in various areas, including economic, trade, energy, tourism, and other fields’.
Azerbaijan enjoys close ties with Israel, supplying it with energy and receiving modern weapons in return. Even as Israel is facing growing international condemnation over the conduct of its war in Gaza, Azerbaijan has deepened its ties, particularly via the Azerbaijan state-run oil company SOCAR.
Nicholas Castillo
