Iran-Israel war and anti-Azerbaijani fakes The Jerusalem Post unmasks propoganda

The Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post has published an article exposing anti-Azerbaijani fakes that were spread during the recent Iranian-Israeli escalation. Caliber.Az reprints the piece.

Editor's note: Michael Borodkin is a researcher specialising in Iran and a member of the Hudson Institute’s Iranian research team.

Just days before war erupted between Iran and Israel, Tehran claimed a dramatic intelligence breakthrough that quickly faded under scrutiny. The Iranian Intelligence Ministry alleged it had seized a massive trove of classified Israeli documents and videos detailing nuclear secrets and security operations.

State media soon released six pages of supposedly damning material—scanned printouts of email correspondence. These were presented as definitive proof of close cooperation between International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director Rafael Grossi and Israel’s nuclear program.

Yet the truth was more mundane. The emails turned out to be part of a preparation for an academic panel held at an American university years ago, comparing the nuclear strategies of Iran and Israel. Nowhere did the correspondence mention military collaboration.  

The timing of the release was hardly coincidental. It came just as the IAEA passed a resolution censuring Iran for violating the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The “revelation,” designed for a domestic audience unlikely to read Hebrew, was clearly meant to deflect international criticism.

Once the war began, Iran expanded its propaganda campaign. Officials claimed they weren’t just fighting Israel, but a broader coalition allegedly including the United States, Azerbaijan, Türkiye, and Qatar. This time, Iranian disinformation was more subtle—relying on fringe figures, foreign media, and online rumours rather than official statements.

One prominent example: former Egyptian MP Samir Ghattas, labelled as a Middle East expert, told Arabic news outlets that Israeli fighter jets were likely using airbases in Azerbaijan—claims mirroring Iranian talking points.

Iranian Telegram channels then echoed the accusation: if Azerbaijan was truly neutral, they argued, it should allow Iranian diplomats or Quds Force officers to inspect the bases. The implication was clear: Azerbaijan had something to hide.

Further rumours claimed that Israeli intelligence, with Azerbaijani assistance, was recruiting ethnic Azerbaijanis inside Iran for espionage. The narrative gained enough traction to warrant a public denial by Hikmet Hajiyev, senior adviser to the Azerbaijani president, who dismissed the allegations as baseless misinformation.

Still, Iranian state outlets persisted. Reports continued to claim Israeli drones were entering Iranian airspace from Azerbaijani territory and that Baku was actively cooperating with Mossad. These assertions remained unconfirmed even by Iranian officials, including the country’s ambassador to Armenia.

Nonetheless, pro-Iranian media in other countries—including Armenia—picked up the narrative uncritically, translating Tehran’s propaganda into English and distributing it internationally. The goal was clear: encourage Western outlets to amplify Iran’s version of the story.

Meanwhile, AI-generated images of downed Israeli jets and fabricated stories of destruction in Israeli cities circulated widely. These tactics have become a staple of Iran’s information warfare playbook.

Foreign journalists who choose to share such fabrications cross a dangerous line: from reporting the news to enabling the narrative of a regime that wages war not just with weapons, but with fiction.