During and after the 12-day Iran–Israel war, Iranian propaganda levelled harsh accusations against Azerbaijan, directly blaming its northern neighbor for collaborating with Israel. Some Iranian political commentators including officials and persons affiliated with the IRGC threatened Baku and called for decisive action against Azerbaijan. As the war erupted at a time of relative warming in Azerbaijani-Iranian relations, Tehran has sought to avoid open hostility at the official level, instead projecting goodwill. The result has been an incongruent and contradictory policy approach.
Iranian propaganda against Azerbaijan has focused on two main accusations: that Azerbaijan supported Israel’s attack and that Baku failed to condemn either the Israeli or American strikes on Iran.
One of Iran’s foremost Caucasus and Central Asia experts, Ehsan Movahedian at Allameh Tabataba’i University, claimed in an interview with the Armenian news agency that Israeli drones and F-35 fighter jets entered northern Iran via Azerbaijani airspace. He asserted that Iranian air defense systems detected several drones approaching from the direction of Azerbaijan.
Read more at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security.
Alex Grinberg is a Senior Fellow at the Turan Research Center.