Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry has expelled four Iranian Embassy employees amid escalating tensions between the two neighbors.
The ministry said it summoned Iranian Ambassador Seyyed Abbas Musavi on April 6 and informed him that "four employees of the Iranian Embassy were declared persona non grata" by Baku "due to their activities...incompatible with diplomatic status."
The four were given 48 hours to leave Azerbaijan, the ministry said in a statement.
"During the meeting, strong dissatisfaction was expressed to the Iranian ambassador due to the recent provocative actions demonstrated by his country in relation to Azerbaijan," the statement added.
Earlier on April 6, Azerbaijan arrested six men who it said were linked to Iran's secret services.
Azerbaijan claimed that the men were plotting to "set up a 'resistance squad' aimed at establishing a Shari'a state in Azerbaijan through armed unrest and violent overthrow of Azerbaijan's constitutional order."
The evictions come a day after Iranian lawmakers issued a statement strongly criticizing Azerbaijan for opening an embassy in Israel, an archenemy of Iran. Tehran called it an action against the Palestinian people and their rights.
The strongly worded statement threatened Baku with "many negative political consequences." It urged other Muslim countries to "strongly condemn" Azerbaijan's action.
In January, Azerbaijan halted the operation of its embassy in Iran after a security guard was killed and two others were wounded when a gunman opened fire on its grounds. Baku blamed the January 27 attack on the Iranian secret services.
Azerbaijan has accused Iran of backing Armenia in the long-standing conflict over Azerbaijan's breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Iran has long accused Azerbaijan of fueling separatist sentiments among its sizeable ethnic Azeri minority.
