April 6,
2023
Azerbaijan
said it would expel four Iranian diplomats over “provocative actions” in the
latest deterioration of relations between the neighbours.
The move
on Thursday came hours after Baku said it arrested six men, who it claimed were
linked to Iranian secret services and were plotting a coup in the Caspian
nation.
Relations
between the neighbours have long been strained, with Azerbaijan being a close
ally of Iran’s historical rival Turkey. Baku has also deepened relations in
recent years with Iran’s regional rival Israel.
The
foreign ministry in Baku said on Thursday that it had “summoned” Iran’s
ambassador and told him that “four employees of the Iranian embassy were
declared persona non grata” with 48 hours to leave the country.
It said
they were carrying out activities “incompatible with diplomatic status” but did
not provide further details.
Earlier
in the day, Baku said it arrested six Azerbaijani nationals, who it said were
“recruited by Iranian secret services to destabilise the situation in the
country”.
It
announced the arrests in a joint statement by the interior ministry, state
security service and prosecutor-general’s office. There was no immediate
comment from Tehran.
Azerbaijan
closed its embassy in Tehran in January after its head of security was killed
in an attack. It opened an embassy in Israel last week.
Iran has
attacked Azerbaijan for moving closer to Israel, with its foreign ministry
saying it sees the fledging relationship between Azerbaijan and Israel as
“anti-Iranian”.
Azerbaijan
has criticised Iran for allegedly backing Armenia in the decades-long conflict
over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Iran,
which is home to millions of Turkic-speaking ethnic Azerbaijanis, has long
accused Azerbaijan of fomenting separatist sentiment inside its territory.
The
neighbours share a border that runs near the Caspian Sea.
The
tensions have come as Iran is normalising ties with Saudi Arabia, which began
with a surprise China-brokered deal last month to restore diplomatic relations
that were severed seven years ago.
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