By Nailia Bagirova and Lucy Papachristou
Baku — Azerbaijan was preparing unspecified retaliatory measures on Thursday after it said four Iranian drones had crossed its border and injured four people in the Nakhchivan exclave, raising concerns about further spillover from the conflict in the Middle East.
“We will not tolerate this unprovoked act of terror and aggression against Azerbaijan. Our Armed Forces have been instructed to prepare and implement appropriate retaliatory measures,” President Ilham Aliyev told a meeting of his Security Council.
“We are ready to demonstrate our strength against any hostile force —and they should not forget this in Iran,” he said.
Iranian deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi denied that Tehran had targeted Nakhchivan.
“We do not attack our neighbouring countries,” he told Azerbaijani outlet AnewZ.
Azerbaijani authorities said one drone had fallen on the terminal building of Nakhchivan International Airport, which is about 10km across the border from Iran, and another drone landed close to a school building in a nearby village.
One was downed by the Azerbaijani army and another hit civilian infrastructure.
The four injured were taken to hospital, where they are in a stable condition, the health ministry in the landlocked exclave of Azerbaijan bordering Armenia, Iran and Turkey told Reuters.
Video footage verified by Reuters showed black smoke rising near the airport and damage to the skylight inside the terminal building. Authorities said they were investigating the types of drones used.
Trump wants to pick Iran’s new leader
Meanwhile, in Washington on Thursday, US President Donald Trump claimed the right to join Iran in deciding its next leader as the war escalated further.
In an interview with Reuters, Trump said Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — a hardliner who has been considered a favourite to succeed his father — was an unlikely choice.
“We want to be involved in the process of choosing the person who is going to lead Iran into the future,” he said by telephone.
“We don’t have to go back every five years and do this again and again ... Somebody that’s going to be great for the people, great for the country.”
The comments came as the Israeli military warned residents to evacuate areas including eastern Tehran, while Iranian media reported blasts were heard in various parts of the capital.
“Today is worse than yesterday. They are striking northern Tehran. We have nowhere to go. It is like a war zone. Help us,” said Mohammadreza by phone from Tehran, as explosions rang out from what Israel described as its latest wave of strikes on Iranian government targets.
As Iran responded, warning sirens sounded in Israel, Dubai and Abu Dhabi and fire crews in Bahrain extinguished a blaze at a refinery following a missile strike.
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