According to official media, Iran and Azerbaijan started two days of combined naval drills in the Caspian Sea on Monday, indicating that their relations are getting better despite the rising tensions in the region.
“The combined aid and rescue exercise in the Caspian Sea between the countries of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Azerbaijan, hosted by the Iranian Navy, is being held in Bandar Anzali” in northwestern Iran, the official IRNA news agency reported.
“Cooperation for peace and friendship” is the slogan of the two-day AZIREX2024 exercises, it added.
Two Azerbaijani ships will participate in the drills alongside the Iranian destroyer Deylaman, according to IRNA.
When a shooter broke into Baku’s embassy in Tehran in January 2023, murdering a diplomat and injuring two guards, ties between the two nations worsened.
The incident was fiercely denounced by Iran’s foreign ministry at the time, which claimed that “personal” intentions were behind it.
But Azerbaijan criticised Iran over the shooting, with foreign ministry spokesman Ayxan Hacizada saying an anti-Azerbaijani campaign had “encouraged the attack”.
In April 2023, Azerbaijan said it had notified Iran’s ambassador to Baku that four employees of his embassy had been declared personae non gratae.
Four Azerbaijani diplomats were expelled by Iran a month later, but Azerbaijan’s embassy in Tehran resumed regular operations in July.
The two nations have historically had tense relations, with the former Soviet republic being strong allies of Iran’s long-time adversaries Israel and Turkey.
Iran also worries that Israel, a significant weaponry supplier to Baku, might exploit Azerbaijani territory in a potential war on Iran.
Iran and Israel have been directly attacking one other in recent months. The most recent attack, which killed five Iranians, was carried out on October 26 by Israeli aeroplanes targeting Iranian military installations.
