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Israeli media has highlighted a new layer in the shadow war between Israel and Iran: Azerbaijan was not just a friendly state near Tehran’s northern border. According to the report, it became a forward operating platform for Israel.
Israel’s N12, citing a CNN investigation, said dozens of Israeli fighters and Mossad operatives worked from secret sites in southern Azerbaijan during the war with Iran. The sites were reportedly about 96 kilometers from the Iranian city of Tabriz.
Details
• The Israeli network in Azerbaijan reportedly included commandos, members of the Israeli Air Force’s Unit 669 and covert Mossad operatives.
• N12 said the sites were used to operate drones, gather intelligence and run complex espionage missions near Iran’s interior.
• The report said Azerbaijan was part of a wider network of secret Israeli sites and bases across the Middle East and the Horn of Africa.
• That network gave Israel a broader operating range and the ability to carry out repeated waves of strikes inside Iran.
• According to the report, the Azerbaijani infrastructure was prepared weeks before the opening strikes of the war, through an operation along the Azerbaijan-Iran border to install advanced listening devices and surveillance equipment.
• After Washington pulled back from a planned joint strike, Israel decided to move ahead alone, according to the published account.
• N12 said stealth aircraft and special forces helped move the equipment in and install it near the border.
• The site later became an early-warning source for Israel on Iranian missile launches and military movements.
The most sensitive point
According to the report, Azerbaijan was not only Israel’s “eyes and ears.”
N12 said the forward site also became a platform for targeting operations. One of them, according to the Israeli account, helped in the killing of Rahman Moghadam, the head of IRGC intelligence, on March 4. The report said Moghadam was linked to planning a 2024 assassination attempt against Donald Trump.
A day later, N12 said drones struck an airport in Nakhchivan, damaging the terminal and injuring several people. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev blamed Tehran and called the attack a “terrorist act.” Iran denied any involvement.
Direct impact
If the account is accurate, Azerbaijan has become one of the most sensitive arenas in the covert war between Israel and Iran.
Israel gained what it lacks geographically: direct proximity to northern Iran.
Iran found itself exposed from the direction of Tabriz and the Azerbaijani border.
Azerbaijan entered a dangerous gray zone between security cooperation with Israel and the risk of Iranian retaliation.
That helps explain Tehran’s long-standing suspicion of Baku’s relationship with Tel Aviv. But the allegation is now sharper. It is no longer only about general defense and intelligence cooperation. It is about the possible use of Azerbaijani territory as part of an Israeli operational network against Iran.
The bigger picture
The Israeli channel said the network also extended to Iraq, the Horn of Africa and the UAE, in what it described as a regional ring around Iran. Azerbaijan, according to that account, served as the northern arm of the network, while other sites provided logistical support, defensive depth or possible transit points.
In that sense, the confrontation with Iran is no longer only about jets taking off from Israel or intelligence collected by Mossad inside Iran. According to the report, Israel is operating from a close perimeter around Iran itself.
What to watch
The key signal now is Baku’s response.
Azerbaijan’s embassy in Washington denied to CNN that its territory was used against third countries. The Israeli prime minister’s office and the Israeli military did not comment on the investigation’s findings, according to N12.
Even with that denial, the Baku-Tehran relationship will stay under pressure. Iran is unlikely to treat these leaks as routine reporting. It will read them as another sign that its northern border has become an open Israeli intelligence front.
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