Relations between Iran and its neighbor Azerbaijan have steadily deteriorated over recent weeks, fueled by military drills on both sides of the border, allegations of an Israeli military presence and the imposition of border controls on a road straddling the Armenia-Azerbaijan border. Iranian forces began a military exercise close to the Azerbaijan border on October 1. The war games were named Conquerors of Khaybar, in an apparent reference to the Battle of Khaybar in 628CE in which Muslims fought against Jews in what is now Saudi Arabia. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev had criticized the exercises in advance, saying to Turkey’s Anadolu Agency in late September “Every country can carry out any military drill on its own territory. It's their sovereign right. But why now, and why on our border?”It is the not the only set of drills to have caused tensions. On September 12, Azerbaijan launched a joint exercise with Turkey and Pakistan, prompting a warning from Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's representative in Ardebil province (which borders Azerbaijan) “not to play with the lion’s tail.”A day later, Azerbaijani MP Gudrat Hasanguliyev said Iran’s own Azeri minority could cause trouble in the event of any conflict with Baku. Iran’s “direct and indirect support of ethnic separatism in Azerbaijan does not bode well for the territorial integrity of Iran, where 30 million Azerbaijani Turks and many other nations live,” he said. Iranian officials have also been making claims about Israeli military activity in the region. Most recently, foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on October 6, while on a visit to Moscow, that Tehran was “deeply concerned by Israel’s presence in the Caucasus.”Azerbaijan used Israeli-made armed drones in a brief conflict with Armenia last year (one in which Iran was also seen to support the Azerbaijan side) and ties have continued to develop since then, with an Azerbaijan trade office opening in Tel Aviv this summer. Iran now says Israeli military advisers are active in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has denied such claims, with Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Leyla Abdullayeva saying on October 4 “We do not accept the allegations about the presence of any third forces near the Azerbaijan-Iran border … because these views have no basis.”Israel’s ambassador to Azerbaijan George Deek has arguably not helped matters by stepping up his criticism of Iran on Twitter and saying, in a video posted on September 1, that “I have been near the border many times.”The 44 days of fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan last year ended with a Russian-brokered agreement between the two sides, but not before Azerbaijan had captured a swathe of territory. The ground that changed hands included an area covering a 20km stretch of road linking the southern Armenian towns of Kapan and Goris.
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