Azerbaijan expels four Iranian diplomats for "provocative actions"

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. (Source: AP)

Relations between Azerbaijan and Iran have become increasingly tense in recent months, with the dispute culminating in Baku opening its embassy in Israel last week. Baku has also accused Tehran of involvement in a recent assassination attempt on an anti-Iranian Azerbaijani lawmaker.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the same day saying that it had summoned the Iranian ambassador in Baku to express “strong dissatisfaction with Tehran’s recent provocative actions related to Azerbaijan.” The ministry also declared four Iranian diplomats “persona non grata” and gave them 48 hours to leave the Central Asian country.

Earlier in January 2023, Azerbaijan closed its embassy in Tehran after the head of Azerbaijani security forces was killed in an attack.

In another development, Azerbaijani authorities on the morning of April 6 arrested six men on charges of having ties to Iran's secret service and plotting a coup in Baku.

According to a joint statement by the Interior Ministry , the National Security Agency and the Prosecutor General's Office, six Azerbaijani citizens were "recruited by the Iranian secret service to destabilize the country."

The group is also accused of propagating pro-Iranian religious radicalism and carrying out orders from outside to undermine Azerbaijan's traditional culture.

Iran, a country with a large ethnic Azeris population in the northwest, views the budding relationship between Azerbaijan and Israel as "anti-Iranian".

Fazil Mustafa, a member of Azerbaijan's parliament who has called Iran a "terrorist state", has been hospitalized after being shot with a Kalashnikov assault rifle last week in what Azerbaijan called a "terrorist attack".

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Source: https://baoquocte.vn/azerbaijan-truc-xuat-4-nha-ngoai-giao-iran-vi-hanh-dong-khieu-khich-222589.html