More than 700 foreigners living in Iran have crossed into neighbouring Azerbaijan and Armenia since Israel began striking the country last week, government officials in Baku and Yerevan said Tuesday.
The Caucasus countries border Iran’s northwest, with the closest crossing into Azerbaijan around 500 kilometres (310 miles) from Tehran by road.
“Since the start of the military escalation between Israel and Iran, more than 600 citizens of 17 countries have been evacuated from Iran via Azerbaijan,” a government source told AFP on Tuesday.
The evacuees, who crossed the border via the Astara checkpoint on the Caspian Sea coast, are being transported to Baku airport and “flown to their home countries on international flights,” the source said.
Among those evacuated are citizens of post-Soviet countries Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, along with others from Germany, Spain, Italy, Serbia, Romania, Portugal, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, China and Vietnam.
Later on Tuesday, Azerbaijani foreign ministry spokesman Aykhan Hajizada told AFP that Baku “is reviewing requests from more than 1,200 foreign nationals from 51 countries seeking to leave Iran” via Azerbaijan.
“Border-crossing permits are being arranged,” he added.
Israel has launched waves of strikes on Iran since Friday, saying it aims to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon -- a goal Iran denies pursuing.
The Israeli attacks have killed at least 224 people and wounded more than 1,000, according to an official toll released Sunday.
In retaliation, Iran has carried out attacks that have killed at least 24 people in Israel since Friday, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
Temporary border opening
Azerbaijan shut its land borders in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and has kept them closed ever since.
But the official said that “in light of the evacuation need, Azerbaijan has temporarily opened its border for those leaving Iran.”
India also evacuated 110 of its citizens from Iran through Armenia, Ani Badalyan, Yerevan’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, told journalists.
Meanwhile, Iran’s ambassador to Armenia, Mehdi Sobhani, said “many Iranian citizens who had previously been in Turkey and Russia have returned to Iran via Armenia”.
“Efforts are ongoing to facilitate the return of Iranian citizens amid flight cancellations,” Sobhani said in comments translated into Armenian at a news conference in Yerevan.
Poland’s foreign ministry said it would evacuate part of its embassy staff in Tehran via Baku.
“We have decided to evacuate or support the departure of staff who do not need to remain in the country, so-called non-essential personnel,” Deputy Foreign Minister Henryka Moscicka-Dendys told reporters.
“Our colleagues will try to reach the border with Azerbaijan,” she said, without specifying how many people were involved.
Turkmenistan, one of the world’s most closed-off countries, said it had also allowed the transit of around 120 people evacuated from Iran through its territory, mainly citizens of Central Asian countries.
