Israel issues travel warning for Georgia and Azerbaijan, citing fears of Iran-backed terrorism
Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) has issued a travel warning for a number of ‘countries bordering Iran’ ahead of the upcoming Jewish holidays, citing concerns that individuals connected to or influenced by Iran might carry out terrorist attacks on ‘locations identified with Israel or Judaism’.
The warning, issued on Tuesday as a more detailed amendment to a previous statement earlier in March, comes as the US-Israel war against Iran is close to reaching its fourth week.
The NSC said the ‘ongoing war with Iran increases the threat of terrorism against Israelis abroad’, referencing several recent attempted and successful terrorist attacks on Jewish and Israeli sites in various countries in the West.
The threats are exacerbated by Passover and other upcoming Israeli or Jewish holidays, the NSC said.
‘Regarding countries bordering Iran (Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the Gulf States), we recommend not participating in events (including holiday meals) at locations identified with Israel or Judaism, due to concerns that these will be targets for kinetic attacks by Iranian elements’.
The previous iteration of the warning, issued on 5 March, did not mention Georgia or Azerbaijan. The NSC has not explicitly stated why the two countries were included in Tuesday’s statement, but there have been recent claims of thwarted Iranian terror plots targeting Jewish sites in Azerbaijan, as well as allegations of growing Iranian influence in Georgia.
Nigar Hasanova
