Officials in Azerbaijan have arrested 22 people suspected of plotting attacks on the American and Israeli embassies in the capital Baku, the Agence France Presse is reporting.

The plot was reportedly on behalf of Azerbaijan’s neighbor, Iran, according to the national security ministry.

“Twenty-two citizens of Azerbaijan have been arrested by the national security ministry for cooperating with the Iranian Sepah,”  the ministry said, referring to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, according to AFP. “On orders of the Sepah, they were to commit terrorist acts against the US, Israeli and other Western states’ embassies and the embassies’ employees.”

The ministry said in a statement to AFP that those arrested were recruited beginning in 1999 and trained at military camps in Iran to gather information on foreign embassies and organizations in Azerbaijan. Their training included weapon use and spy techniques to stage attacks, according to the AFP.

“Firearms, cartridges, explosives and espionage equipment were found during the arrest,” the statement said.

In the past few months, a series of arrests have been made in Azerbaijan with alleged connections to Tehran.

The former Soviet nation of Azerbaijan is reported to have purchased hundreds of millions of dollars to weapons from Israel, allegedly angering Iran, the AFP reported.

(Source: Fox News)