Drone strikes Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan exclave — Aliyev orders forces to highest readiness

A drone struck the Nakhchivan exclave of Azerbaijan, a strip of Azerbaijani territory separated from the main body of Azerbaijan and bordered by Iran to the south, Armenia to the north and east, and Turkey to the northwest. President Ilham Aliyev responded by ordering Azerbaijani armed forces to their highest level of combat readiness and summoning Iran's ambassador to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry in Baku. Iran categorically denied any involvement in the strike. The attribution remains contested. Iran blamed the drone on unknown actors seeking to widen the conflict, while Azerbaijani officials pointedly noted that the drone's approach vector was consistent with Iranian territory. Azerbaijan has longstanding strategic ties with Israel, supplying approximately 40% of Israeli crude oil imports and hosting Israeli intelligence infrastructure, giving Tehran potential motive. If Baku formally attributes the strike to Iran, it could activate a northern front along Azerbaijan's 700km border with Iran — a country that also hosts a large Azerbaijani ethnic minority (estimated at 15-25 million) whose political status has been a recurring source of tension between the two states.