Azerbaijan army on alert after suspected Iran drone hit
Azerbaijan is preparing to take unspecified retaliatory measures after it said four Iranian drones crossed the border and injured four people in the Nakhchivan region, raising concerns that the conflict will spread further into the Middle East.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said at the Security Council meeting: “We will not tolerate this unprovoked act of terrorism and aggression against Azerbaijan. Our armed forces have been instructed to prepare and implement appropriate retaliatory measures.”
“We are ready to show our strength against any hostile power, and they should not forget this in Iran as well,” he said.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazim Garibabadi denied that his country targeted Nakhchivan.
“We do not attack our neighboring countries,” he told AnewZ from Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijani officials said they were investigating the types of UAVs used in the attack.
They stated that a drone crashed into the terminal building of Nakhchivan International Airport, approximately 10 kilometers away from the Iranian border, and another drone crashed near a school building in a nearby village.
One of them was shot down by the Azerbaijani army, and the other hit civilian infrastructure.
The country is a major oil and gas producer, exporting energy to Türkiye and Europe mostly via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
Any damage to its infrastructure could cause global energy prices to rise even further.
Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had previously requested Iran to “clarify the issue as soon as possible, make a statement and take the necessary urgent measures to prevent such incidents from recurring in the future”, stating that the incident “contributed to increasing tension in the region”.
A note of protest was given to the Iranian Ambassador to Azerbaijan.
The Ministry of Health in Azerbaijan’s landlocked region bordering Armenia, Iran and Türkiye told Reuters that four injured people were hospitalized and their condition was stable.
Video footage verified by Reuters showed black smoke rising near the airport and damage to the skylight of the terminal building.
The outer region of Nakhchivan is separated from the mainland of Azerbaijan and borders Armenia, Türkiye and Iran.
The United States and Israel have been carrying out air strikes on Iran since Saturday.
In response, Iran fired missiles and drones at many countries in the region.
via Reuters
