Baku May Regret Suing CNN for its Report on Israeli Forces in Azerbaijan — By Harut Sassounian
The government of Azerbaijan filed a lawsuit last week against CNN in a U.S. federal court for reporting that “Israel sent troops to Azerbaijan during the Iran war.”
Based on unnamed sources, CNN reported on June 5, 2026, that the Israeli forces in Azerbaijan “consisted of several dozen troops, including members of Israel’s special operations forces, its elite heliborne combat and rescue force, and Mossad personnel.” CNN said that it was informed that the Israeli teams, located on several bases in southern Azerbaijan near the Iranian border, conducted intelligence-gathering missions and drone operations, and maintained positions that could support aerial rescue missions in case of downed Israeli pilots over Iran.
CNN reported that Israel had spent months preparing intelligence infrastructure along the Azerbaijan-Iran border before the outbreak of hostilities. According to sources cited by the news network, Israeli operatives installed surveillance and intelligence-gathering equipment near the frontier in early 2026, reflecting Israeli concerns that diplomatic efforts between Washington and Tehran would ultimately fail.
CNN further reported that this relationship with Israel “gives Azerbaijan access to a critical diplomatic resource, according to Joshua Kucera, a senior analyst for The Crisis Group, allowing Baku to utilize Israel’s lobby in Washington, D.C.”
According to CNN, one of the key operations launched from Azerbaijan was the killing on March 4, 2026, of Rahman Moghaddam, who led the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) intelligence division.
The CNN report highlighted the longstanding strategic relationship between Israel and Azerbaijan. Baku supplies 40% of Israel’s oil imports, while Israel provides 70% of Azerbaijan’s advanced military equipment. Pres. Ilham Aliyev had described Baku’s relationship with Israel as an iceberg, with 90% of it hidden below the surface.
Israel was among the first countries to recognize Azerbaijan’s independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the two countries have developed extensive defense, intelligence, and energy cooperation.
Neither Israel nor Azerbaijan has publicly acknowledged any military cooperation related to the war with Iran beyond their existing defense relationship. A spokesperson for Azerbaijan’s embassy in Washington denied CNN’s report. ”We firmly reject unfounded claims regarding the alleged use of Azerbaijan’s territory for operations against third countries,” the embassy said in a statement to CNN. Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry described the CNN report as “entirely baseless” and called on CNN several times to retract the report. CNN declined Azerbaijan’s demand. “We stand by our reporting,” a spokesperson for CNN asserted. Significantly, Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office and the Israel Defense Forces have not responded to CNN’s request for comment.
On August 17, 2026, the government of Azerbaijan filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware against CNN, alleging two counts:
Count I: Defamation — Azerbaijan claimed that CNN ignored its denials and exercised systematic bias. It further alleged that CNN prepared its report “with actual malice,” that is, with knowledge that its statements were false or with reckless disregard for the truth.
Count II: Intentional Infliction of Harm — Without excuse or justification, CNN intentionally inflicted harm on Azerbaijan, resulting in damages.
Azerbaijan’s lawsuit accused the news network of “causing immeasurable reputational harm to Azerbaijan and endangering Azerbaijani civilians…. CNN’s reckless reporting threatened to drag Azerbaijan into war…. CNN’s claims in this regard are demonstrably and knowingly false and recklessly exacerbate geopolitical tensions in an already volatile region.”
Azerbaijan asked the Court to “award damages [against CNN] in an amount to be determined at trial; award pre-judgment and post-judgment interest; direct CNN to publish a full, conspicuous, and unequivocal retraction of the Defamatory Post; direct CNN to remove the Defamatory Post from its website, print editions, social media feeds, and all digital archives under CNN’s control; and award such further relief as the Court may deem just and proper.”
Interestingly, similar reports about the presence of Israeli forces have been published by the international media for years, but for unknown reasons, the government of Azerbaijan did not file a lawsuit against any of those organizations. In a detailed essay in Foreign Policy in 2012, Mark Perry of the Quincy Institute wrote that Azerbaijan was “Israel’s secret staging ground” against Iran.
There are several complex legal issues involved in Azerbaijan’s lawsuit against CNN:
1) Does Azerbaijan, as a foreign country, have the right to sue in a U.S. court an American news organization for publishing a critical report?
2) Can Azerbaijan prove that CNN acted with “actual malice,” which means that it issued the report knowing that it was false and with reckless disregard for the truth?
3) Can Azerbaijan ask the Court to demand that CNN disclose its confidential journalistic sources?
4) Does Azerbaijan’s lawsuit infringe on CNN’s First Amendment right to freedom of expression and of the press?
5) In its defamation claim, Azerbaijan must be able to prove not only that the CNN report was false and issued with malice, but, more importantly, that Baku suffered actual monetary damages as a result of CNN’s report.
The biggest potential bombshell of this lawsuit is CNN’s ability to subpoena Azerbaijan’s and Israel’s secret internal documents to discover what military agreements they have signed with each other. If the Judge approves the issuance of such a subpoena, Azerbaijan may conclude that it is in its best interest to drop the lawsuit rather than risk disclosing its secret military agreements with Israel. Pres. Aliyev’s description of Azerbaijan’s relationship with Israel as an iceberg, with 90% of it hidden below the surface, is extremely relevant in this regard.
