(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - “Azerbaijan is expected to act in accordance with the interests of the Islamic countries and the Muslim world and not to be swayed by the US and the Israeli regime’s pressure,” Hossein Naqavi-Hosseini, the spokesman for the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said on Wednesday.

He also said that the Israeli regime, in cahoots with the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), has recently increased its espionage activities against Iran.

He referred to the arrest of two Azeri nationals in Iran over espionage-related charges and said, “Documents and evidence obtained from the Azeri spies and espionage teams indicate that the Zionists are the architect of such measures.”

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, an official from Iran’s northwestern province of Azarbaijan said the collected evidence indicates that the two Azeri nationals, Shahryar Hajizadeh and Farid Husseinov, entered Iran under the direction of the Republic of Azerbaijan’s secret service known as MTN. They were supposed to recruit a number of dissidents in Iran to promote separatism.

The two agents entered Iran under the pretense of representing a cultural institution through a fake invitation prepared and sent to them by their Iranian accomplice. On this assignment, they obtained confidential information and images from the strategic locations and facilities.

The methods employed by the two agents is identical to those Israel has long been trying to implement. Israel’s recruitment and support of the extremists in the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as providing the necessary funds, know-how and training for these agents before eventually dispatching them to Iran, has led to a significant increase in the political and border tensions between the two countries.

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