Azerbaijan and Iran trade denunciations as tensions mount
Officials from Baku and Tehran have exchanged heated accusations after an Iranian commander criticised Azerbaijan following its opening of an embassy in Israel. On 30 March, a day after Azerbaijan opened its embassy in Israel, Kioumars Heydari, the commander of Iran’s ground forces, stated that Iran would not tolerate the presence of ‘Zionist elements’ on its borders. Heydari claimed that Azerbaijan had employed ISIS fighters from Syria in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War of 2020, and that th