Tehran on Tuesday, September 28 invoked its "sovereignty" to dismiss Azerbaijan's concerns over Iranian military exercises near their shared border, AFP reports (via Barron's).
"The drills carried out by our country in the northwest border areas… are a question of sovereignty," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said in a statement on the ministry website.
Tehran "will take all measures it judges necessary for its national security", he said, adding, "Iran will not tolerate the presence of the Zionist regime near our borders" — an allusion to Azerbaijan's relations with Iran's enemy Israel.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev earlier criticized Tehran over the drills, calling them "a very surprising event".
"Every country can carry out any military drill on its own territory. It's their sovereign right. But why now, and why on our border?" he said in an interview with Turkish news agency Anadolu published on Monday.
No further details were available on the military exercises.
Iran and Azerbaijan share a border of around 700 kilometres (430 miles) and generally have good relations. According to some estimates, there are around 10 million members of Iran's Azeri-speaking community.
