PDB Afternoon Bulletin | March 5th, 2026: Tehran’s Big Gamble Backfires & Americans Stranded Abroad
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
It's Thursday, the 5th of March. Welcome to the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First up, Iran widens the war again, this time with drone strikes in Azerbaijan. But their strategy may be further isolating the Iranian regime and increasing regional cooperation against Tehran. Later in the show, the latest on the thousands of Americans stranded across the region as US officials work to bring them home. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. It's the sixth day of the war between the US, Israel, and Iran, and today we're seeing the latest sign that Iran's strategy may be producing unintended consequences as it continues to anger friends and neighbors in the region.
Overnight, drones believed to have originated from Iran struck the passenger terminal of Nakhchivan International Airport, that's in Azerbaijan, damaging the building and injuring civilians. Another drone reportedly crashed near a school in a nearby village. Now, if geography wasn't your favorite subject in school, I don't see how it couldn't have been, but here you go. Azerbaijan sits just north of Iran in the South Caucasus. That's between Russia, Turkey, and the Caspian Sea. Officials in that country say their monitoring systems tracked four drones coming from Iranian territory, and President Ilham Aliyev has called the strike an act of terror. He's now ordered the Azerbaijani military into full combat readiness and warned that retaliatory measures are being prepared.
Now, that alone would be a serious escalation, but what makes this moment especially striking is the diplomatic whiplash it's creating. Only a day earlier, Aliyev had made a big public showing of visiting the Iranian embassy in Baku to offer condolences following the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. In other words, Azerbaijan had been trying publicly to maintain a working relationship with Tehran. And now, less than 24 hours later, its president is threatening to, quote, crush Iran with an iron fist. That is quite the turnaround.
What recent actions has Iran taken in the Azerbaijan conflict?
But the Azerbaijan incident didn't happen in isolation. Just hours before that drone strike, another alarming development unfolded involving Turkey. Turkish officials say a ballistic missile launched from Iran was detected heading toward Turkish airspace. NATO missile defenses intercepted the projectile before it could reach its destination. According to Western officials, the likely target may have been Incirlik Air Base, a major NATO facility that hosts U.S. forces. Now, that's an extraordinary development for another reason. Turkey, of course, is a NATO member, which means that within roughly a 24-hour period, Iran appears to have fired weapons toward the territory of two neighboring countries, one a regional energy power in the Caucasus, the other a member of NATO.
Tehran, for its part, has denied responsibility for both incidents. We had nothing to do with it. But those denials are rightly being met with skepticism in both Turkey and Azerbaijan, particularly because, well, Iran is the only country wildly launching drones and missiles across multiple fronts in this current conflict. And that gets to the larger strategic picture. Iran's apparent strategy right now seems to involve widening the battlefield as much as possible. The logic appears to have been that doing so would cause regional actors to pressure Washington and Jerusalem into stopping their attacks. In total, Iran has attacked 13 of its neighboring countries. That includes Turkey, even though the missile was intercepted before it actually made it into Turkish territory.
Now, in fairness, the approach isn't entirely irrational. From Tehran's perspective, widening the conflict may have seemed like the only viable option for a military that knows it can't match the US or Israel in a direct fight. But the risk of that approach is becoming apparent. Instead of rallying neighboring states to Iran's side, these attacks are having the opposite effect, pushing those same countries toward alignment against Tehran.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:12–2:20
2
What recent actions has Iran taken in the Azerbaijan conflict?
2:20–5:01
3
How is Iran's strategy affecting its relationships with neighboring countries?
5:01–6:06
4
What are the implications of drone strikes on Azerbaijan's civilian population?
6:06–12:42
5
What developments have occurred regarding Turkey's response to Iranian threats?
12:42–16:58
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