BAKU, March 6 (Reuters) - Azerbaijan is evacuating its diplomats from Iran for their own safety, Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said on Friday, a day after Baku said four Iranian drones had crossed its border and injured four people in the Nakhchivan exclave.   

Speaking at a news conference in Baku, Bayramov said that Azerbaijan was evacuating employees from its embassy in Tehran and its consulate general in Tabriz, the largest city in Iran’s northwest, where many ethnic Azerbaijanis live.

“On the orders of President Ilham Aliyev, instructions have been given to evacuate our embassy in Tehran and the consulate general in Tabriz from Iran, and these instructions are already being implemented. We cannot put the lives of our people at risk,” he said. 

Azerbaijan reacted angrily on Thursday to what it said was an incursion by Iranian drones into its Nakhchivan exclave, with President Aliyev threatening retaliation. Iran said it had not launched the drones.

The two countries have long had tense relations, with Azerbaijan’s close relations with Israel drawing Tehran’s ire.

Azerbaijan shares a majority Shi’ite Islamic faith with Iran, but its government is firmly secular.

(Reporting by Nailia Bagirova; Writing by Gleb Stolyarov; Editing by Andrew Osborn)