The border incident sparked fears of the Middle East war spilling over into the Caucasus region, with Tehran blaming Israel -- Azerbaijan's ally -- of staging a provocation.

Thursday's attacks involved at least four drones that crossed from Iran into Azerbaijan's exclave of Nakhchivan bordering Iran.

One hit the airport and another exploded near a school, Baku said. Four people were wounded.

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev accused Iran of "terrorism" and threatened retaliation.

The general staff of Iran's armed forces said it had not carried out the attack and pointed the finger at Israel.

"Azerbaijan is evacuating its diplomatic personnel from Iran. The process applies to both the embassy in Tehran and the consulate in Tabriz," Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said on Friday.

"Work to this effect is currently underway," he added.

"Yesterday, during a phone call with Iran's foreign minister (Abbas Araghchi), we discussed this issue seriously.

"The Iranian side promised to thoroughly investigate the incident and we expect results," he added.

Iran has long expressed concern that Israel -- a close ally of Azerbaijan and a key arms supplier -- could use Azerbaijani territory to stage attacks.

In June 2025, Azerbaijan reassured Tehran that it would not allow such use of its territory after Israel launched a large-scale strike on Iranian targets.

Tehran has historically been wary of separatist sentiment among its ethnic Azerbaijani minority, which makes up around 10 million of Iran's 83 million citizens.