March 29 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Government of Azerbaijan will inaugurate its Embassy in Israel this Wednesday in Tel Aviv, a step applauded by Israel that comes more than three decades after both countries established their bilateral relations, which have registered a significant improvement in recent years.
The Azeri Foreign Minister, Jeyhun Bayramov, stressed during a meeting with his Israeli counterpart, Eli Cohen, that the opening of the legation “will contribute to reinforcing strategic alliance relations” and stressed that bilateral ties are based “on a historic friendship and cooperation”.
Thus, he recalled that a meeting on strategic dialogue was held in Baku in January and has shown his “satisfaction” with the cooperation between the two countries at the political, economic, commercial, military and humanitarian level, according to a statement from the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs. .
For his part, Cohen stressed that “the opening of the Azeri Embassy in Israel is further proof of the strengthening of relations between the two countries” and pointed out that the country, with a Muslim majority, “has a strategic location that makes it relationship has great importance and potential.
“Bayramov and I have agreed to form a unified front against Iran and strengthen cooperation in the fields of economy, security, energy and innovation,” he stressed, amid rising tensions between Baku and Tehran and the traditional confrontation between Israel and Iran for close to more than four decades.
Cohen has also revealed that “soon” he will make an official visit to Baku at the head of a “large economic delegation” with the aim of “further strengthening commercial ties between the two countries”, as specified by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. through a statement published on its website.
After his meeting with his counterpart, Bayramov held a meeting with Israel’s acting Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, with whom he discussed military cooperation between the two countries, as well as the situation in the region.
The opening of the Azeri Embassy in Israel will take place days after Azerbaijani Ambassador Mukhtar Mamadov presented his credentials to Israel’s President Isaac Herzog. Israel has had an Embassy in Baku since 1993.
Israel, one of the first countries to recognize the independence of Azerbaijan in 1991, is also one of the main arms suppliers to Baku, also during the recent conflict in 2020 with Armenia. Azerbaijan will become the first country with a Shiite Muslim majority to open an Embassy in Israel.
The improvement of relations between Azerbaijan and Israel has caused tensions between Baku and Tehran, which last year accused the Israeli authorities of having a military presence on Azeri territory, something denied by Azerbaijan. After that, the Iranian forces carried out exercises near the common border.
Ties between Azerbaijan and Iran further deteriorated following the January 27 attack on the Azeri embassy in Tehran, which resulted in the death of the head of the legation’s security team. The president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, criticized last week that the security forces of Iran did not adopt “serious measures” to prevent the attack, which reached Baku to suspend its diplomatic activities in the country.
Aliyev “fiercely” condemned the “terrorist attack” and called on the Iranian authorities that the incident “be promptly investigated and that the terrorists be punished.” Iran condemned the incident, noting that preliminary investigations pointed to “personal reasons”, while calling on Baku to avoid “precipitous acts” in response to the incident.
