Iran preferring to play it safe with Baku to prevent creation of Israeli bridge across its borders

One week after the Persian Gulf mini-tour, on Oct. 18, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi left for Istanbul to attend the regional 3+3 format (the so-called South Caucasian six) meeting.

During the meeting of the South Caucasian six, Araghchi paid a lot of attention to communication with his Azerbaijani colleagues, Regnum writes.

In particular, during the meeting with Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev, the foreign minister repeated several times the thesis that the Iranian side is not interested in destabilizing the region, not forgetting, however, to mention the “high level of readiness” to repel possible aggression.

Mustafayev, for his part, noted that Azerbaijan will not allow an attack on its neighbors from its territory under any circumstances. Azerbaijan has been building partnership relations with Israel in the fields of energy and defense for two decades, striving to bring the relations to the level of strategic partnership. Israel’s intelligence services feel relatively relaxed in the country, which worries and angers Iranians.

“Despite the fact that Baku still successfully balances between Ankara, Tel Aviv and Tehran, the leadership of Iran prefers to play it safe and not allow the creation of an Israeli bridge on its borders. Moreover, after the “Tehran incident” of August 2024, when Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas, was killed, the attention of Iranians on the “Baku direction” multiplied,” the website writes.

According to some reports, Tel Aviv considered Azerbaijani airports a “jumping-off point” for attacks on Iranian territory. However, Tehran’s promise of “instant punishment” has derailed those preparations. Baku even urgently needed to deny the news circulating in the press.

Moreover, while talking about the situation in Gaza, the parties almost did not touch another urgent topic, the concept of the “Zangezur corridor”. Tehran is concerned about Ankara and Baku lobbying for this project, seeing it as a way to create artificial distance between Armenia and Iran.

“However, now it is not very beneficial for Tehran to break the spears regarding the project and thereby spoil relations with the neighbors by exposing its borders,” Regnum wrote.