THEAzerbaijan relations with Israel are deepening, Iran, in response, has started last Friday, military exercises near the border at the border crossings of Poldasht and Jolfa.
Iranian media reported that the exercises involved armored and artillery units, as well as drones and helicopters.
Iran strongly disagrees with Azerbaijan's recent Israeli arms purchases. According to think tanks of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Israel provided Azerbaijan with approximately $ 825 million in arms between 2006 and 2019.
Tehran is also wary of nationalists in Turkey e Azerbaijan which feed the secessionist tendencies among the “Azerbaijani” minorities present in Iran.
The president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev expressed astonishment at the military exercises on its borders, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said, however, that the conduct of military exercises by a state within its territory falls within its national sovereignty.
Referring to an Israeli presence along Iran's borders, Amirabdollahian told the new Azerbaijani ambassador: "Iran does not tolerate the activity of the Zionist regime against its national security and will take all necessary actions ".
Iran also denounced the recent visit of the Israeli foreign minister to Bahrain to sanction the establishment of new relations with the Gulf countries. An affront that will be difficult to cancel has made Tehran known through the national media.