Azerbaijan accuses Iran of drone attack on airport that injured two people

Azerbaijan accuses Iran of drone attack on airport that injured two people Tehran denies responsibility but strike raises prospect of US-Israel war on Iran spreading beyond Middle East Middle East crisis – live updates Azerbaijan has accused Iran of a drone attack that struck the region of Nakhchivan, hitting an airport and injuring two civilians. The strike would be the first Iranian attack on a Caucasus state since the start of the US-Israel war on the country, and raises the prospect of the conflict spreading beyond the Middle East. Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry said the drone hit the terminal building at the only airport in Nakhchivan, an Azerbaijani exclave bordering Iran. A second drone fell close to a school in a nearby village, the ministry said. Baku said it reserved the right to take retaliatory measures. Iran later denied any connection to the drone attack on Nakhchivan airport. “The Islamic Republic of Iran has not targeted the Republic of Azerbaijan,” Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, said in comments carried by Iran’s Tasnim news agency. “We do not target our neighbouring countries.” Footage circulating on social media appeared to show a drone directly striking the airport before a fire broke out. “We demand that the Islamic Republic of Iran clarify the matter in the shortest possible time, provide an explanation and take the necessary urgent measures to prevent such incidents from recurring in the future,” the Azerbaijani foreign ministry said in a statement. Azerbaijan, an oil-rich authoritarian nation that has adopted a neutral stance in the Middle East conflict, has recently developed closer ties with Israel and the Trump administration while gradually moving away from Moscow, the traditional power broker in the Caucasus. The country hosts no US military bases, a sign Iran may be expanding its strikes beyond nations directly linked to accommodating American forces. Zaur Shiriyev, a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for...