The president of Israel makes a historic visit to Azerbaijan to strengthen their ties

Herzog says that Baku “is a valuable strategic partner and an anchor for regional security”

The Azeri Embassy in Madrid stresses that the trip “creates a favorable climate for the expansion and enrichment” of relations

May 30. (EUROPE PRESS) –

The President of Israel, Isaac Herzog, traveled to Azerbaijan on Tuesday for an official visit that is the first of its kind and that comes amid the improvement of bilateral relations, which has sparked harsh criticism from Iran, which has viewed the rapprochement between the two countries with skepticism.

Herzog, who was received at the Baku airport by an official Azeri delegation, later met his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, whom he described as “a true friend of Israel”.

“Israel considers Azerbaijan as a valuable strategic partner and an anchor for regional security,” he said in his account on the social network Twitter, before stressing that “the relations between the two nations are a model for other countries that choose the path of peace and cooperation, as well as an example of friendly relations between Muslims and Jews”.

The Israeli president had indicated in his account on the social network Twitter before boarding the plane to Baku that it is an “important” visit and has thanked Aliyev for his “warm invitation” to come to Azerbaijan.

“Azerbaijan is a key country and I am sure that my visit will open the door to deepen cooperation. We share new and common opportunities, as well as challenges,” said the Israeli president.

In addition, he asserted that “Iran is a destabilizing influence in the region that continuously works to act against Israel and against the peace and security alliance that is being developed in the region,” while also announcing that this issue will be on the agenda of his meetings in Baku, according to the newspaper ‘The Times of Israel’.

For his part, Aliyev has applauded the bilateral cooperation at the defense level and has praised the existence of “a very active political dialogue” between the two countries. “During (Herzog’s) official visit we will have more opportunities to address important issues on our bilateral agenda,” he argued.

He also stressed that the opening of the Azeri Embassy in Tel Aviv in March “will raise relations to a higher level and, at the same time, create more opportunities for closer interaction.”

“Azerbaijan has had access to modern Israeli equipment in this field for many years, which helps us modernize our defense capabilities and allows us to defend our state, our values, our national interests and our territorial integrity,” he said.

Lastly, the Ministers of Health of Azerbaijan and Israel, Teymur Musayev and Moshe Arbel, respectively, have signed during their meeting a cooperation plan in health and health sciences for the five-year period 2023-2028, as reported by the Azeri state agency of news, Azertac.

THE AZERI EMBASSY SPEAKS OF A “DEEPENING” OF TIES

For its part, the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Madrid has highlighted in statements given to Europa Press that “the high-level dialogue” addressed during the day “creates a favorable climate for the expansion and enrichment” of bilateral relations “with new material of mutual interaction at the level of economy, energy, advanced technologies, education, military and technical affairs and other fields between Azerbaijan and Israel”.

“For centuries, the Azeri and Israeli nations have enjoyed close relations, which is deeply rooted in the rich traditions of coexistence and multicultural values ​​between the two,” he explained, before recalling that Israel “was one of the first ” in recognizing the country’s independence in 1991.

“During the last 31 years, the strategic relations between Azerbaijan and Israel have risen to new levels and until now they are deepening and broadening,” he asserted, while stressing that the opening of the Azeri Embassy in Tel Aviv “was another milestone that will give a clear boost to mutually beneficial relations”.

The Embassy has thus pointed out the relevance of the aforementioned opening of the Embassy in Tel Aviv, an act in which the Israeli and Azeri foreign ministers, Eli Cohen and Jeyhun Bayramov, respectively, participated. Azerbaijan thus became the first country with a Shiite Muslim majority to open an Embassy in Israel.

During the same, Cohen assured that he had agreed with Bayramov “to form a unified front against Iran”, which led Iran to ask Baku for “explanations” and denounce that the Israeli authorities want to turn the Azeri territory into “a threat” to the Tehran national security.

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.

However, the Azeri authorities have always defended that their foreign policy is aimed at improving bilateral ties with other countries, regionally and globally, and they have denied that the fact that they have strengthened their relations with Israel poses a threat to Iran or that it will have a negative impact on Tehran.

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. Aliyev criticized then that the security forces of Iran did not adopt “serious measures” to prevent the attack, which came to Baku to suspend its diplomatic activities in the country.

In fact, Azerbaijan announced in March the expulsion of four employees of the Iranian Embassy in Baku for carrying out “actions incompatible with their diplomatic status” — hours after Baku claimed to have detained six people allegedly recruited by the intelligence services. Iranians to “destabilize the situation” internally –, after which Iran reciprocated by declaring four workers of the Azeri diplomatic legation in Tehran ‘persona non grata’.