In mid-September, Azerbaijani border guards detained two Iranian truck drivers on the road connecting the southern Armenian cities of Goris and Kapan. The arrests spiraled into a deep crisis between Baku and Tehran, including demonstrative military exercises and unprecedentedly aggressive rhetoric from both sides . The saber-rattling also had the unintended effect of spotlighting Iran’s energy exports to Nagorno-Karabakh. The two drivers were arrested on charges of illegally crossing Azerbaijan’s border, as they were reportedly delivering bitumen to Nagorno-Karabakh. Iranian supplies of fuel and other goods to Nagorno-Karabakh have long been a thorn in Baku’s side, as it considers entry into the Armenian-administered territory to be a violation of its border. Ultimately, Iran’s Roads and Transportation Agency issued a ban on the country’s trucks traveling to Nagorno-Karabakh. But officials and businesspeople in Karabakh are loath to talk about the Iranian trade. The isolated enclave gets all of its energy […]