Iranian Plot to Assassinate Chabad Rabbi in Azerbaijan Foiled, Authorities Say

Baku, Azerbaijan – A high-level assassination plot targeting a Jewish religious leader in Azerbaijan was foiled earlier this year, in what security officials describe as part of an escalating campaign by Iran to target Jewish and dissident figures around the world.

The intended target was Rabbi Shneor Segal, a prominent religious leader in Baku. According to Western and Middle Eastern security officials, a Georgian drug trafficker named Agil Aslanov was recruited by Iran’s Quds Force — a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — and offered $200,000 to carry out the murder.

The plot was disrupted in early January by Azerbaijan’s State Security Service, which arrested Aslanov and an Azerbaijani accomplice, Jeyhun Ismayilov. Authorities say the two men had been surveilling the rabbi’s home and workplace and had shared sensitive information with Iranian intelligence operatives via encrypted mobile applications.

Rabbi Segal told The Washington Post he learned about the foiled attempt through local media reports. “We live here peacefully,” he said. “I walk on the streets here, and there is no fear.”

Officials say the assassination attempt is consistent with a growing number of Iranian operations that use criminal proxies to carry out attacks — a strategy that allows Tehran to maintain plausible deniability. Similar plots have been uncovered in Germany, Peru, and the United States over the past two years.

In 2023, Azerbaijani lawmaker Fazil Mustafa survived an assassination attempt that authorities also linked to Iran. That attack, carried out with a Kalashnikov rifle, resulted in several convictions last summer, including charges of treason and terrorism.

Tensions between Iran and Azerbaijan have remained high, driven by Tehran’s support for Armenia and growing suspicion in Baku over Iranian influence in the region. Azerbaijan reclaimed full control of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023, further straining relations.