Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has announced he is mobilising the armed forces following an Iranian drone attack on Nakhchivan International Airport, adding that troops ‘must be ready to carry out any operation’. Iran has denied the attack, claiming it was an Israeli false flag.
Aliyev made the statement while chairing a meeting of the country’s Security Council, hours after an Iranian drone attack struck Nakhchivan International Airport, injuring at least four.
Despite putting the armed forces on alert, however, Aliyev stressed that Azerbaijan ‘Azerbaijan neither participated nor will participate in any operations against Iran this time around’.
In his speech, Aliyev referred to the attack on the airport as a ‘terrorist act’, saying ‘This is not the first time that the Iranian state has carried out acts of terror against Azerbaijan’, citing the attack on the Azerbaijani Embassy in Tehran in January 2023, accusing the Iranian regime of inaction throughout the 40 minutes in which the embassy was attacked.
He added that Tehran was ‘repeatedly informed’ that Azerbaijan’s territory would not be used to stage attacks against Iran. Aliyev recalled Iranian accusations that Azerbaijan was allowing Israel to launch attacks against it in the Iran–Israel war of June 2025, calling such accusations an ‘dirty, defamatory campaign against Azerbaijan in an attempt to discredit our country and influence the opinions of our fellow Azerbaijanis in Iran’.
‘They know that the independent Azerbaijani state today is a source of hope for many Azerbaijanis in Iran’, he added.
Iran’s northwest is home to a significant ethnic Azerbaijani population, who make up around 25% of the country’s population.
Aliyev then went on to claim that Iran had asked Azerbaijan to assist in the evacuation of Iranian Embassy employees stranded in Lebanon, which is currently under Israeli attack. He claimed that he ‘immediately gave the order’ to evacuate the Iranian staff.
‘Yet they responded by striking Nakhchivan in such a vile and dishonorable manner. This stain will never be erased from their disgraceful and unsightly record’.
Aliyev further referenced his visit to the Iranian Embassy on Wednesday to offer his Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, saying ‘no other head of state has visited an Iranian embassy elsewhere for this purpose’.
‘To disregard such a gesture, to belittle it, and to conduct themselves in a base and ungrateful manner brings honour to no one’.
He then escalated his rhetoric, saying ‘Those who [tested our strength] in the past had their sculls [sic] crushed with [an] “Iron Fist” and today’s events will lead to the same outcome’.
Iran’s Armed Forces have denied launching an attack against Azerbaijan, alleging to the state-run news agency Tasnim that it was an Israeli false flag operation intended to ‘disrupt the relations of Muslim countries’. Tasnim and other Iranian state-run outlets have repeatedly claimed throughout the war, without providing evidence, that Iranian attacks on facilities in Gulf countries were also Israeli false flag operations. Tasnim has also previously spread conspiracy theories about a variety of topics, including that the COVID-19 pandemic was orchestrated by US diplomat Henry Kissinger and was part of a plan for US–Israeli world domination.
An unprecedented attack
In a statement strongly condemning the strike, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry stated that one drone crashed into the terminal building of the airport, while another crashed near a school in the village of Shekarabad.
The ministry said they had summoned Iran’s ambassador to Azerbaijan, and demanded an explanation for the incident.
‘The Azerbaijani side reserves the right to take appropriate retaliatory measures’, the statement read.
Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry later issued a statement insisting that ‘these attacks will not go unanswered’, and stating that it was ‘preparing the necessary response measures to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty’ of Azerbaijan.
In an interview with Azerbaijani pro-government news site AnewZ which was apparently underway as the attack unfolded, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi denied that Iran was targeting ‘neighbouring countries’.
‘This incident, I have heard about it from you, I should investigate […] the source of this information and the nature of this information and I can comment later on’, said Gharibabadi.
Gharibabadi added that targeting neighbouring countries was not ‘the policy of Iran […] unless the military bases of our adversaries, namely the Zionist regime and the United States of America, are active there and are used to attack innocent people in the Islamic Republic of Iran’.
The strike took place less than 10 kilometres from the Iranian border in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, an Azerbaijani exclave, at around noon on Thursday.
Footage apparently from the scene shows plumes of black smoke rising from the airport. Additional footage shows a small blast across from the airport. APA later published additional footage from inside the airport, showing that the building’s ceiling was damaged. People were also seen fleeing the scene.
The strikes mark the first time that Azerbaijan or any other nation in the South Caucasus has been drawn into the US–Israel war with Iran, now in its sixth day.
Despite having a rocky relationship, Azerbaijan and Iran had in recent years reached a fragile rapprochement. Just a few days before the strike on Nakhchivan, Aliyev said he was ‘deeply saddened by the tragic death’ of Khamenei and expressed ‘deep condolences’ to the Iranian people over the ‘heavy loss’.
Iran has previously accused Azerbaijan of allowing hostile forces to use the country as a staging ground, including during the June 2025 US-Israeli bombing campaign. Azerbaijan and Israel enjoy close relations.
However, during a phone call with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Aragchi on Saturday, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov insisted that it was ‘impossible for any country to use the territory of Azerbaijan against neighbouring and friendly Iran’. Bayramov also ‘expressed condolences due to the killing Khamenei and innocent people because of the airstrikes’.
Earlier this week, NATO forces shot down a missile fired from Iran towards Turkey — a NATO member and Azerbaijan’s closest ally. Iran denied firing missiles towards Turkey, insisting that it respects the country’s sovereignty and had intended to hit Cyprus.
International condemnation
The attack on the airport in Nakhchivan was condemned by nations across the region, including Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
The Qatari Foreign Ministry said ‘these hostile actions constitute a dangerous escalation and a violation of state sovereignty through Iran's reckless attacks’.
‘They also constitute a direct threat to peace and stability in the region’.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry stated that Iran’s actions were contrary to international law and could not be justified.
The Ukrainian Embassy in Azerbaijan also criticised the attack, and called ‘to unite to strengthen the fight against regimes that undermine global security and the future of our peoples’.
The UK’s Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Fergus Auld, said the attack was ‘completely unacceptable’, and said the UK ‘strongly condemns any actions that threaten Azerbaijan’s security’.
Deputy Foreign Minister of Israel Sharren Haskel said the attack on Nakhchivan ‘has taken off the mask of the ayatollah’s regime’.
‘Iran will not stop until the world stops it’, Haskel said.
The ruling New Azerbaijan Party stated that Iran should apologise to the Azerbaijani nation.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
