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Azerbaijan said Friday it is evacuating its diplomats from Iran following a drone attack on the country’s autonomous Nakhchivan exclave that injured four people.
Earlier Thursday, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said the exclave was struck by drones launched from Iranian territory.
According to the ministry, one drone hit the terminal building at Nakhchivan International Airport, while another fell near a school in the village of Shakarabad.
“We strongly condemn these drone attacks launched from the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which resulted in damage to the airport and injuries to two civilians,” the ministry said in a statement.
The Azerbaijani Health Ministry later announced that four people were injured in the incident and that their conditions were stable.
Thursday’s incident involved at least four drones that crossed from Iran into Azerbaijan’s autonomous Nakhchivan region, which borders Iran.
According to Azerbaijani authorities, one drone struck the terminal building of Nakhchivan International Airport, while another exploded near a school. Four people were wounded in the attack.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev accused Iran of committing “terrorism” and warned of possible retaliation.
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said diplomatic personnel were being withdrawn from Iran following the incident.
“Azerbaijan is evacuating its diplomatic personnel from Iran. The process applies to both the embassy in Tehran and the consulate in Tabriz,” Bayramov said Friday.
“Work to this effect is currently underway,” he added.
Bayramov said he had raised the incident during a phone call with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
“Yesterday, during a phone call with Iran’s foreign minister (Abbas Araghchi), we discussed this issue seriously,” he said.
“The Iranian side promised to thoroughly investigate the incident and we expect results,” Bayramov added.
Iran’s armed forces denied responsibility for the drone attack and instead blamed Israel.
The general staff of Iran’s armed forces said it had not carried out the attack and suggested Israel may have staged the incident.
Iran has long expressed concern that Israel, a close ally of Azerbaijan and a major arms supplier, could use Azerbaijani territory to launch attacks on Iran.
In June 2025, Azerbaijan reassured Tehran that it would not allow its territory to be used for attacks against Iran after Israel carried out a large-scale strike on Iranian targets.
Tehran has also historically been wary of separatist sentiment among its ethnic Azerbaijani minority, which numbers around 10 million people within Iran’s population of roughly 83 million.
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