Azerbaijan offers aid olive branch to Iran after drone attack

BAKU, Azerbaijan: Azerbaijan on Tuesday sent humanitarian aid to Iran, appearing to offer an olive branch days after an Iranian drone attack sparked fears of the Middle East war spilling into the Caucasus.

Baku, a close partner of Israel, accused Tehran of “terrorism” after Iranian drones hit an airport and exploded near a school last week, wounding four people in Azerbaijan’s exclave of Nakhichevan, which borders Iran.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev ordered the armed forces to prepare retaliatory measures, placing them on the highest level of mobilisation, and its diplomats were pulled out of the country.

Iran’s military denied launching the drones and accused Israel of staging a provocation.

But in an apparent sign of detente, Azerbaijan’s emergency situations ministry said Tuesday it had shipped tonnes of food and medicines to Iran “following the telephone conversation on March 8 between the presidents of Azerbaijan and Iran”.

Aliyev’s office said earlier that his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian had called him on Sunday, promising to investigate the drone attack, which he insisted “had no connection with Iran”.

Aliyev “underlined the importance of investigating the incident” and the two leaders “exchanged views on the development prospects of joint economic projects”, the statement said, in a sign that both sides may be seeking to prevent the crisis from deepening further.

Iran has long accused Israel — a key arms supplier to Baku — of using Azerbaijani territory for intelligence operations and potential attacks.

In June 2025, Baku reassured Tehran that it would not allow its territory to be used for strikes on Iran after Israel launched a large-scale attack on Iranian targets.

Tehran has also historically been wary of separatist sentiment among the around 10 million ethnic Azeris living in Iran.