Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had a telephone conversation with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on March 8, amid high tensions between the two countries following the drone attack on Nakhichevan, Azerbaijani state news agency AZERTAC reported.
Baku had previously made unprecedented criticism of Tehran after accusing Iran of being behind the strike on the Autonomous Region of Nakhichevan and Describing it as a terrorist act. Iranian authorities denied any involvement in the attack and said that Israel was behind it.
According to official information from Baku, during the conversation, Ilham Aliyev expressed condolences over the deaths of a large number of civilians in the recent events in Iran. The Azerbaijani president also stressed the need to investigate the incident with the airstrike in Nakhchivan. The two heads of state also discussed the prospects for the development of joint economic projects between the two countries. Before the conversation, the authorities in Baku announced that they had evacuated all Azerbaijani diplomatic personnel from Iran due to the deteriorating situation. According to the Azerbaijani side, Masoud Pezeshkian thanked Aliyev for his visit to the Iranian embassy in Baku and for the condolences expressed after the death of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the dead civilians, as well as for Azerbaijan's readiness to provide humanitarian aid.