The mullahs in Tehran continue to threaten their own people, the State of Israel and its allies such as Azerbaijan, the Gulf countries, and the entire free world. These threats and attacks have only gotten worse in the wake of the war between Israel and Hamas, where proxies of Iran have attacked allies of Israel and America across the Middle East.
These attacks include Houthi attacks on ships, attacks on US bases in Iraq, Iranian strikes on Iraq, Syria and Pakistan and psychological warfare against the Jewish state. For example, according to Iran International, as twenty-four Israeli soldiers were killed in Israel’s worst day of losses in Gaza, the Iranian media attempted to frame it as a victory for Hamas.
In spite of the Israeli military announcing the death of 24 soldiers, the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency wildly inflated the numbers, claiming 50 soldiers had been killed, calling it “the biggest blow to Israel” since the October 7 attack in which 1,200 mostly civilians were murdered in Israel and a further 250 or more taken hostage.
And as new details emerge regarding the cruel fate of women held hostage in Gaza, with great worry that these women are being raped and sexually tortured on a daily basis, Hamas, a proxy of Iran, releases a statement denying atrocities and blaming Israel for all of the civilian deaths on October 7.
Meanwhile, it was recently reported that Iran executed Mohammed Ghodablou, a 23-year-old man with bipolar disorder who reportedly stopped taking his medication two months before deciding to join anti-regime protests. His lawyer Amir Raesian wrote on X that his execution amounted to “murder” due to his client’s mental health condition.
According to the BBC, Amnesty International said last year that Ghobadlou had received two death sentences after “grossly unfair sham trials marred by torture-tainted ‘confessions’ and failure to order rigorous mental health assessments despite his mental disability”. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based group Iran Human Rights, denounced Ghobadlou’s execution as “an extrajudicial killing. The Islamic Republic’s leader Ali Khamenei and his judiciary must be held accountable for this crime.”
These regional developments affect other nation states, and let us take the State of Azerbaijan as an example. In Baku, most important figures understand that the mullahs in Tehran are a threat to the free world. About one year ago, on International Holocaust Memorial Day, the Azerbaijani Embassy in Tehran was attacked, which resulted in the death of a security guard. Several others were injured. Since then, there has been no operational Azerbaijani Embassy in Iran.
Yet recently, the spokesman of the Iranian Foreign Ministry Nasser Kanaani said that a roadmap had been drafted for the reopening of the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Iran, pointing out “good relations between the two countries and in other areas.”
However, even though there has been discussion about building a transit corridor between mainland Azerbaijan and Nachshivan along the Iranian side of the Araz, many in Azerbaijan are skeptical that Tehran is able to create the right conditions to reopen the Azerbaijani Embassy in the country, despite the existence of such a road map. This is because too many people in Iran see Azerbaijan as an Iranian province, which is mistakenly outside of Tehran’s sphere of influence. These forces cannot accept the fact that Azerbaijan is an independent country, allied with the State of Israel and maintains a secular regime, opposed to religious fundamentalism. They also cannot accept that there are Azerbaijanis inside of Iran, who wish to secede and unite with the rest of Azerbaijan.
Therefore, while there are forces in the Iranian regime who may be willing to engage in projects with Azerbaijan, there are far too many more who object to normal relations with their colonial perspective of the Caucuses country as well as Azerbaijanis who live under the yoke of Iranian tyranny. This bigotry culminated in the attack upon the Azerbaijani Embassy one year ago.
The Iranian colonial perspective of the world continues to threaten Israel, the Gulf states, and the entire free world. Iran is spreading its tentacles from Gaza to Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. As long a nearby country does not permit Tehran to spread its tentacles there Iran will continue to pose a threat. Azerbaijan’s security interests are under such a threat now.
Dr. Mordechai Kedar
