Azerbaijan announced, on Monday, that it had arrested 5 of its citizens on charges of espionage for Iran, amid the escalation of tension between the country in the Caucasus and Tehran.
According to the Azerbaijani security services, the arrests came within the framework of “measures aimed at dealing with the sabotage activities carried out by Iranian intelligence against Azerbaijan.
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The five detainees are accused of collecting information about the Azerbaijani army, including its purchases of Israeli and Turkish aircraft, in addition to the energy infrastructure.
Earlier in November, the Azerbaijani authorities announced the arrest of 17 people on charges of belonging to “an illegal armed group formed by Iran on Azerbaijani lands. ”
Last Friday, Azerbaijan summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest the Iranian “threatening speech” towards Baku.
On the eve of the summons, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs handed over to Azerbaijani Ambassador to protest against the “anti -Iran” statements made by Azerbaijani officials.
Iran, which is inhabited by millions of Azerbairy, has always accused its neighbor of stirring separatist feelings in its territory.
Tehran also views a lot of suspicion of Baku’s ambitions to establish a corridor that reaches its pocket Nakhchivan and from it to Turkey, and the corridor crosses along the Iranian -Iranian border. The aforementioned pocket follows Azerbaijan, but it is not geographically connected.
This project would end Azerbaijan’s dependence on Iran to reach the Jeep Nachifan.
This issue is a major point of disagreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which fought two wars in 2020 and in the nineties in order to control the disputed Nagorno Karabakh region.
The relations between Baku and Tehran are traditionally sensitive, as Turkish -speaking Azerbaijan is a close ally of Turkey’s historical opponent.
Tehran is also afraid that Israel will use Azerbaijani lands in a possible attack against it, knowing that the Hebrew state is the main supplier of weapons to Baku..
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