Azerbaijan sues CNN for defamation over Iran war report

The Republic of Azerbaijan has sued CNN for defamation, accusing the network of publishing a false report that Israeli forces used Azerbaijani territory to conduct military and intelligence operations against Iran.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, alleges CNN’s June 5 report endangered Azerbaijan and threatened to pull the country into the war between Israel and Iran. Azerbaijan is seeking unspecified damages.

CNN’s report, headlined “Exclusive: Israel sent troops to Azerbaijan during Iran war, sources say,” cited four sources familiar with the operation. It reported that Israel secretly deployed elite military and intelligence units to several locations in southern Azerbaijan near the Iranian border as part of a broader network of covert sites used during the war.

CNN reported that dozens of Israeli troops, including special operations forces and Mossad personnel, operated from Azerbaijan and conducted intelligence-gathering and drone missions inside Iran. The report also tied the operation to an Israeli attack that killed the intelligence chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Azerbaijan denied the allegations before CNN published its report. CNN’s on-air coverage included a statement from an Azerbaijani Embassy spokesperson who said the country “firmly reject[ed]” claims that its territory had been used for operations against third countries. CNN said the Israeli government did not confirm or deny its reporting.

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry issued a public denial the same day, saying the allegations were “entirely baseless” and that the country had never allowed its territory to be used for military, intelligence or other hostile operations against Iran. The ministry said it had communicated that position to CNN before publication.

The lawsuit goes further, accusing CNN of knowingly or recklessly publishing false information that could damage Azerbaijan’s relationship with neighboring Iran.

Azerbaijan maintains it was neutral during the conflict and did not support military operations by either side. The complaint argues that portraying the country as secretly assisting Israeli attacks could make Azerbaijan a target for Iranian retaliation and “recklessly exacerbate geopolitical tensions in an already volatile region.”

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The country also alleges CNN ignored repeated efforts to resolve the dispute after the story was published. According to the complaint, Azerbaijan disputed the reporting directly and through attorneys and sought a retraction, but CNN responded with what the suit characterized as a promise to investigate followed by no further action.

The case could also test an unusual First Amendment question: whether a foreign sovereign government can bring a defamation lawsuit against a U.S. news organization.

American governmental bodies generally cannot sue their critics for defamation, a principle rooted in First Amendment protections allowing citizens and the press to criticize their own government without the threat of government retaliation through libel litigation.

Azerbaijan argues that restriction should not apply to a foreign government because it is not accountable to American voters. Its complaint contends that the allegations at issue are factual claims about secret military activity rather than political opinions or criticism of a government’s policies.

The lawsuit says there is no controlling U.S. Supreme Court precedent resolving whether a foreign sovereign may bring such a defamation claim. Azerbaijan argues foreign governments have long been permitted to bring other types of lawsuits in U.S. courts and that the First Amendment rationale protecting criticism of American governmental institutions does not automatically bar its case.

CNN is standing by the June report.

“We stand by our reporting,” a CNN spokesperson told Bloomberg Law.