Iran has kicked off large-scale military drills along its northwest border with Azerbaijan over what it claims the alleged presence of the United States and Israel - an accusation Azerbaijan denies as "surprising" and a "false pretext".
Named "Conquerors of Khaybar" in reference to the Battle of Khaybar against the native Jews in 7th century, the drills involve special forces, land troops, aviation and heavy equipment, reported Iranian media, citing a statement by Army Brigadier General Kioumars Heydari.
Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev voiced deep concern over Iran's massing military assets and flexing its muscles near his country’s borders for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union.
"Why now?" he asked in a televised interview.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday defended the action, linking it to “the emerging presence of Zionist regime” (Israel) in Azerbaijan after Azerbaijan liberated from Armenia its previously occupied lands bordering Iran.
“By this, we are making it clear that the Islamic Republic of Iran is not going to tolerate the emerging presence of the Zionist regime near its borders and will take whatever measures it deems necessary,” ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said in a statement.
Iranian semi-official media claim "the United States uses Israel’s nearly 30 years of close security ties with Azerbaijan to establish its presence at the doorstep of Iran".
There has always been some dormant tension between secular modern Azerbaijan and sharia-ruled Iran as Azerbaijan perceives the Iran's radical Islamic influence as a threat to its statehood and independence.
Back in January 2012, Azerbaijan's government said it broke up an Iranian plot to kill the ambassador of Israel in Baku.
Iran is overly sensitive to Azerbaijan's independence from the Soviet Union due to its own sizeable ethnic Azerbaijani population, at around 25 to 40 million strong, whom it has been accused of depriving of the right of education in their mother tongue, suppressing dissent and attempting to erase their sense of belonging to the shared cultural heritage with Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan was divided by the Persian and Russian empires under the Treaty of Turkmenchay in 1928 with the current Republic of Azerbaijan left under the control of Russia and subsequently the Soviet Union until it became independent upon the USSR's collapse.
Ethnic Azeris or Azerbaijanis who were left on the other bank of the river (Aras) now constitute over a third of Iran's overall population.
After Azerbaijan won the war against Armenia, Iran fears the stronger Azerbaijan might inspire its Azerbaijani population to seek independence, or this vulnerability might be used by its arch foes Israel or the United States to brew a domestic civil unrest.
There is no independent evidence other than the allegation by Iran about such developments. Azerbaijan has denied any presence of any third countries in its territory.
Due to an extremely difficult economic situation thanks to U.S. sanctions, Iran is, after all, ill prepared to handle an uprising among its large ethnic Azeri community who are today far more passionate than ever to reconnect with their brethren to the north.
Iran is also frustrated by the new geopolitical developments in the region where Turkey and Russia have emerged as power brokers pushing to restore once-vital transport and trade routes within and through Azerbaijan and Armenia.
An opinion piece published in Kayhan, a newspaper associated with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, warned against an alleged "invisible alliance" between the US, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Israel, saying that it could have a "major impact" on Iran's political weight in the region.
Over the past weeks Iranian clerics have lined up to threaten Azerbaijan with "the might of Iran", warning against closer ties with "the enemies of Iran".
"Don't play with the lion's tail," the Iranian supreme leader’s representative in Ardabil province, Seyyed Hassan Ameli said in a viral video threat to Azerbaijan.
The region also remains on edge over Iran’s escalating nuclear program. Talks in Vienna to revive Tehran’s now-tattered 2015 accord with world powers have stalled since June, with no date set for their resumption.
ارتش جمهوری اسلامی ایران سیلی از زرهپوشها و توپخانه را روانه مرزهای شمالغرب کرده است
رزمایش بزرگ #فاتحان_خیبر از فردا آغاز میشود pic.twitter.com/3AxkZxHe7Q
— Hossein Dalirian (@HosseinDalirian) September 30, 2021
