{"id":202529,"date":"2026-03-05T23:59:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T23:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/iran-denies-its-drones-hit-airport-in-azerbaijans-exclave-as-war-widens-al-jazeera\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T23:59:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T23:59:10","slug":"iran-denies-its-drones-hit-airport-in-azerbaijans-exclave-as-war-widens-al-jazeera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/iran-denies-its-drones-hit-airport-in-azerbaijans-exclave-as-war-widens-al-jazeera\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran denies its drones hit airport in Azerbaijan\u2019s exclave as war widens – Al Jazeera"},"content":{"rendered":"

Azeri President Alliyev seeks Iran\u2019s apology for the drone attack in Nakhchivan, but Tehran denies role in the incident.<\/em>
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President Ilham Alliyev of Azerbaijan has sought Iran\u2019s apology after a drone attack targeted the autonomous Nakhchivan exclave, opening yet another front in the ongoing war launched by the United States and Israel<\/a> and the retaliation from Tehran.
Alliyev on Thursday said those responsible must be held accountable after Nakhchivan was \u201csubjected to cowardly fire\u201d. Two people were injured in Thursday\u2019s drone attack in the exclave, which borders Iran and Turkiye.
\u201cThe Azerbaijani state strongly condemns this ugly terrorist act, and those who committed it must be immediately held accountable,\u201d Alliyev said in a post on the presidential website.
Earlier, Azerbaijan\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement<\/a> that the incident occurred about noon (08:00 GMT) on Thursday.
\u201cOne drone struck the terminal building of the airport in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, while another drone fell near a school building in the village of Shakarabad,\u201d the ministry said.
\u201cWe strongly condemn these drone attacks launched from the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran.\u201d
It added that the attack injured two civilians and caused damage at the airport.
The ministry demanded \u201ca clear explanation\u201d from Iran and said the country \u201creserves the right to take appropriate response measures\u201d.
It summoned Iranian Ambassador Mojtaba Demirchilou over the incident.
Turkiye, which is closely allied with Azerbaijan, also released a statement \u201cstrongly\u201d condemning the strike and warned against spreading the conflict to third countries. \u201cTurkiye will continue to stand by Azerbaijan in the future, as it has always done,\u201d it said.
\u201cWe emphasise once again the need to stop attacks targeting third countries in the region and carrying the risk of spreading the war.\u201d
In a call with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov, Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi insisted that Tehran was not behind the attack, according to a ministry readout. Araghchi suggested that Israel could be responsible, describing the strike in a statement on Telegram as \u201caimed at diverting public opinion and undermining Iran\u2019s good relations with its neighbours.\u201d
Earlier, Iran\u2019s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi also denied that Iran was behind the attack.
\u201cThe Islamic Republic of Iran has not targeted the Republic of Azerbaijan,\u201d Gharibabadi said in comments carried by Iran\u2019s Tasnim news agency. \u201cWe do not target our neighbouring countries.\u201d
\u201cIran\u2019s policy is only to strike the military bases of its enemies\u201d that are active in the region and those bases that are used to attack Iran, including those of the US and Israel, he added.
Nakhchivan was part of a US-brokered peace deal<\/a> signed last year between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
A land corridor called the \u201cTrump Route for International Peace and Prosperity\u201d gave the US development rights for the proposed route connecting Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan exclave and creating a passage between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Iran has\u00a0long opposed the planned transit route<\/a>, also known as the Zangezur corridor, fearing it would cut the country off from Armenia and the rest of the Caucasus while bringing potentially hostile foreign forces close to its borders.
Al Jazeera\u2019s Resul Serdar said: \u201cIran has long been accusing the Azeri government of turning Azerbaijan into an Israeli spy base.\u201d
\u201cThey are accusing Aliyev of undermining Iran\u2019s security from its northern border,\u201d Serdar added. \u201cIran said multiple times that if Azerbaijan did not stop, it would be punished.\u201d
Serdar said Thursday\u2019s drone strikes were sending a clear message to the Azeri government. \u201cIran is engaging in a conflict with neighbouring countries,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cthe Gulf, Turkiye and now Azerbaijan\u201d.<\/p>\n

More Iranian drones are reported to have targeted countries across the region<\/a>, including a US military base near Baghdad International Airport in Iraq.
Qatar\u2019s Ministry of Defence said its air defence systems intercepted a missile attack as multiple explosions were heard in the skies above Doha.
\u201cOur Armed Forces successfully intercepted (13) missiles while the last one fell in the territorial waters of [the] State of Qatar,\u201d the ministry said in a statement, adding that four \u201cdrones were intercepted successfully without any human casualties\u201d.
The Saudi Ministry of Defence said the latest drone sent into its airspace was shot down near the al-Jawf region while the Oman Oil Marketing Company said one of its storage tanks was damaged.
On Wednesday, Turkiye\u2019s Ministry of National Defence said a \u2060ballistic missile fired from \u2060Iran towards Turkish airspace<\/a> was destroyed \u2060by NATO air defence systems over \u200cthe eastern Mediterranean after \u2060passing over Syria and Iraq.
Iran\u2019s \u2060armed forces issued a statement<\/a> on Thursday denying having fired \u2060any missiles towards Turkish territory.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country was \u201ctaking all the necessary precautions\u201d in consultation with its NATO allies and was issuing \u201cwarnings in the clearest terms to prevent similar incidents from happening again\u201d.
In the meantime, the Israel-Hezbollah front<\/a> in Lebanon has been reignited with heavy Israeli bombardments and incursions into its northern neighbour.<\/p>\n

Follow Al Jazeera English:<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Azeri President Alliyev seeks Iran\u2019s apology for the drone attack in Nakhchivan, but Tehran denies role in the incident.ShareSavePresident Ilham Alliyev of Azerbaijan has sought Iran\u2019s apology after a drone attack targeted the autonomous Nakhchivan exclave, opening yet another front in the ongoing war launched by the United States and Israel and the retaliation from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":202530,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-202529","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}