Azerbaijan has decided to open an embassy in Israel, after 30 years of relations between the two countries and amid tensions with neighboring Iran, local media reported.
“The decision has already been made, the opening of the Azerbaijani embassy in Israel can only be delayed for technical reasons,” Arzu Naghiyev, an MP and member of the Azerbaijan-Israel parliamentary friendship group, told the Azerbaijani news site Pravda last week.
He pointed out that the two countries have very good relations, despite the absence of an embassy.
Israel and Azerbaijan enjoy close relations, especially in defense matters, as 69 percent of Azerbaijan's arms imports between 2016 and 2020 came from Israel.
"Israel is a strategic political, military, economic and cultural partner," he said.
President Isaac Herzog had written a letter honoring 30 years of relations between Israel and Azerbaijan earlier this year, in which he invited his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev to visit Israel and open an embassy.
“As we mark an important step in our relations, I hope to see us take an additional step, with the opening of the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Israel,” he wrote.
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Mikayil Jabbarov and Yoel Razvozov at the opening of the Azerbaijan representative office in Israel
(Photo: Motti Kimchi)
Azerbaijan has trade and tourist offices in Israel, but no embassy, partly to avoid provoking its neighbor Iran. Nevertheless, the Abraham Accords and the thawing of Israeli-Turkish relations have tended to diminish the fears of the Central Asian nation.
Roman Gurevich, the Jewish Agency's honorary envoy to his native Azerbaijan, expressed excitement about the upcoming opening of an embassy in Israel.
"Azerbaijan is a tolerant Shia Muslim country, in which there has never been antisemitism. The country has always respected the Jewish people and the warm relations between the two nations will only grow stronger if an embassy of Azerbaijan opens in Israel," he said.