Tehran summons Azeri envoy over 'anti-Iran propaganda'

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The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the ambassador of the Azerbaijan Republic to Tehran on Thursday to protest the ongoing propaganda campaign by the country’s officials and media against the Islamic Republic.

The ministry expressed its strong protest over top Azeri officials' "unfriendly remarks" and the country’s media campaign against Iran, calling for an immediate end to such actions and for acting toward the prevention of their repetition.  

In response, the Azeri ambassador voiced his regret over the situation and promised to convey Iran's protest to the authorities in Baku.

Last year, the relation between the two countries had improved after the two countries quarreled over what he described as the unauthorized cargo coming from Iran to Nagorno Karabakh and Baku's apparent "rapprochement" with "Israel."

Azerbaijan had sent a diplomatic message to Iran's ambassador in August 2021 protesting cargo trucks passing across Iran's territory without Azerbaijan's authorization on their way to Karabakh, since it considers it as a part of its national territory.

Iran accused Azerbaijan of providing a base of intel operations for "Israel." Tehran accused Tel Aviv of exploiting the Karabakh conflict to gain access to Iran's borders via Azerbaijan, while also attempting to inflame tensions between Baku and Tehran.

In December, the relations between the two countries began a new chapter, Iran's Foreign Ministery said. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and his Azerbaijani counterpart Jehon Peramov stressed, more than once, the importance of Iranian-Azeri relations despite recent tensions on the border between the two countries.

This September, Breaking Defense magazine said that "Israel" is trying to get closer to Azerbaijan for new ways to confront Iran.

Officially the Israeli security establishment is not commenting on how Azerbaijan may help "Israel" in a future conflict with Iran. “This is a very sensitive issue, and we better shut up,” a security source told Breaking Defense. 

It is worth noting that "the border between Iran and Azerbaijan is approximately 420 miles, and they have shared volatile relations over the years, and Israel now hopes to exploit the hidden tensions between Baku and Tehran for its own purposes," according to the magazine.

It also considered that "Azerbaijan can, in theory, expose its airspace to Israeli planes to enter Iranian territory if necessary."