Azerbaijan-Iran tensions escalate with arrests and expulsions.

Azerbaijan has arrested six men linked to Iranian secret services for plotting a coup in the country. The group was allegedly planning to establish a Sharia state in Azerbaijan through armed unrest and violent overthrow of Azerbaijan’s constitutional order. Azerbaijan has long been a close ally of Iran’s historical rival Turkey and holds close ties with arch-foe Israel. The arrests come after months of diplomatic tensions between the two neighbors, with Azerbaijan accusing Iran of backing Armenia in Baku’s decades-long conflict with Armenia over the breakaway region of Nagorno Karabakh.