Azerbaijan‘s authorities announced on Friday that they had foiled a plot involving a series of terrorist attacks allegedly organised by Iran on its territory, including actions targeting the Israeli embassy in Baku, a synagogue and leaders of the country’s estimated 30,000-strong Jewish community, as well as a major oil pipeline vital for the supply of crude oil to Israel. At least seven Azerbaijani nationals have been detained, according to sources close to the investigation.
In a statement quoted by The Times of Israel, Azerbaijan’s state security service claimed to have “prevented terrorist acts and intelligence operations in Azerbaijan organized by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)“. According to the same media, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which runs through Georgia and Turkey and carries about a third of Israel’s oil imports, was also among the targets.
Azerbaijani news agencies reported that the detained Azeri nationals admitted receiving instructions from individuals linked to Iran‘s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. According to the investigation, they received explosive devices and followed orders to prepare several attacks and assassinations. Investigators believe that these actions were carried out by an officer in the IRGC intelligence unit, Iranian Colonel Ali Asghar Bordbar Sherami.
The incident coincides with Baku’s order on Friday to evacuate all its diplomatic staff in Iran, a day after Iranian drone strikes in the Azerbaijani autonomous region of Nakhchivan threatened to spread the US-Israeli war against Iran to the South Caucasus. The evacuation orders affect both the embassy in Tehran and the consulate in Tabriz.
Azerbaijan orders army mobilisation
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev reacted sharply to yesterday’s Iranian drone attack – which left several people injured – by calling it a “terrorist attack” and ordering the mobilisation of the army. For its part, Iran denied any responsibility and accused Israel of carrying out a false flag attack aimed at implicating Azerbaijan in the conflict. While Aliyev has ruled out a military response against Iran for now, Azerbaijan’s foreign minister, Jeyhun Bayramov, said on Friday that all security measures are being strengthened.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, which connects Azerbaijan’s Caspian oil fields with the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan via Georgia, is one of the most important energy corridors between the Caspian region and international markets. From the Turkish port of Ceyhan, oil is shipped in tankers to various destinations, including Israel, which obtains about 30% of its crude oil needs through this important pipeline.
A spokesman for the IRGC commander said on Tuesday that Tehran would not allow oil exports to Israel and the US to continue, warning that Iran could attack what he described as the “enemy’s oil supply lines“.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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