BAKU: Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry on Thursday announced the expulsion of four employees of Iran’s embassy after months of diplomatic tensions between Baku and Tehran.

The news came hours after Baku said it arrested six men, who it said were linked to Iranian secret services and were plotting a coup in the Caspian nation.

Relations between the neighbours have long been strained, with Azerbaijan being a close ally of Iran’s historical rival Turkiye.

The foreign ministry in Baku said on Thursday it “summoned” Iran’s ambassador and told him that “four employees of the Iranian embassy were declared persona non grata” with 48 hours to leave the country.

It said they were carrying out activities “incompatible with diplomatic status” but did not provide further details.

“During the meeting, strong dissatisfaction was expressed to the Iranian Ambassador due to the recent provocative actions demonstrated by his country,” the ministry added.

Earlier in the day, Baku said it arrested six Azerbaijani nationals, who were “recruited by Iranian secret services to destabilise the situation in the country”.

It announced the arrests in a joint statement by the interior ministry, state security service and prosecutor-general’s office.

It said the group was plotting to “set up a ‘resistance squad’ aimed at establishing a Sharia state in Azerbaijan through armed unrest and violent overthrow of Azerbaijan’s constitutional order”.

It accused them of being “engaged in a pro-Iranian propaganda of religious radicalism, fulfilling orders from abroad to undermine Azerbaijan’s tradition of tolerance”.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2023