Azerbaijan tightens oversight of foreign media with registry rule change

Mossad, Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet said they had uncovered a clandestine network linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that was preparing attacks against Israeli and Western targets, including sites in Azerbaijan.

President Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree that could significantly reshape the governance structure of Azerbaijan’s non-metallic minerals sector by transferring the exploitation rights of several key deposits to state-owned AzerGold CJSC.

When the ambassadors — Julien de Frepon of Belgium and Marian de Jong of the Netherlands — were summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Baku on April 20, it initially appeared to be a familiar diplomatic routine. However, the tone adopted by the Azerbaijani side was noticeably harsher than usual — a signal that irritation had evolved into systemic distrust.

Inflows of remittances to Azerbaijan from abroad recorded moderate growth in the first quarter of 2026, reflecting the resilience of migrant workers’ incomes amid uneven economic dynamics in donor countries, according to analysts’ estimates and regulatory data.