Azerbaijan has positioned itself in the course of the conflict as Israel’s closest Muslim buddy and has shunned criticizing army actions, whereas supplying oil and even inviting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to go to Baku. Sources inform “Globes” that till most lately, Azerbaijan has been pushing for a three-way summit in Baku with President Ilham Aliyev internet hosting Netanyahu and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The latest determination to forestall Netanyahu’s aircraft from flying over Turkish airspace not solely ended hopes of such a summit but in addition led to the postponement of Netanyahu’s go to to Baku. The prime minister’s bureau declined to touch upon the matter.
This isn’t the primary time that Erdogan, who has imposed a commerce embargo on Israel, has taken such a step. In November, he prevented the aircraft carrying President Isaac Herzog from flying over Turkish airspace to the UN Local weather Change Convention in Baku. These two actions display Erdogan’s lack of readiness to comply with Aliyev’s initiative due to anti-Israel sentiment in Turkey.
The Abraham Accords are the goal
With Donald Trump’s return to the White Home, Azerbaijanis started to voice their want to combine into the Abraham Accords – an ostensibly unusual intention as a result of the Abraham Accords are primarily based on normalization between Israel and nations with which it didn’t beforehand have full diplomatic relations – the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco. Nevertheless, “Globes” can reveal that behind the Azerbaijani pondering is that The Abraham Accords additionally embody the US, and Baku believes that by them the “dam” that exists between them and the US protection industries might be launched.
Azerbaijan suffers from difficulties with protection imports from the US. Initially, following the primary Karabakh conflict within the early Nineties, the US banned the sale of weapons to Azerbaijan and Armenia. These restrictions lasted for a few decade, however historically Armenia is extra favored by the People because of the highly effective Armenian foyer in Washington.
Thus in November 2023, Congress handed a legislation known as the “Armenia Protection Act of 2023,” which blocks any risk of the Secretary of State allowing protection gross sales to Azerbaijan. This was in the course of the Biden administration however since Trump returned to the White Home, US envoy Steve Witkoff has already visited Baku. Though this has not led to Azerbaijan becoming a member of the Abraham Accords, “Globes” has discovered that prime officers from US protection giants, like Lockheed Martin and RTX, are already holding conferences in Baku, within the hope that Aliyev’s transfer will materialize and they’ll be capable to attain permitted offers in Washington.
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If the transfer is carried out, the Israeli protection business could possibly be harmed, as it’s a main weapons provider to Azerbaijan, which invests 5% of GDP within the protection funds. Nevertheless, senior Baku officers are additionally working to deepen protection cooperation with Israel. As a part of talks with the Protection Ministry, Azerbaijan is striving to have Israeli protection industries switch as many manufacturing traces as potential to its territory to enhance technological knowhow and diversify the financial system.
The Israel connection
The connection between Turkey and Azerbaijan is without doubt one of the closest that Ankara has and relies on the concept of “one nation, two states.” Azerbaijanis are a Turkic folks, like Kazakhs and Uzbeks, however nearer than all to Turkey – therefore the depth of the connection. As well as, the events have frequent pursuits. The very shut connection between Aliyev and Netanyahu and between him and Erdogan has led to a number of rounds of discussions in Baku between senior Israeli and Turkish officers, mediated by Azerbaijanis.
The authorities in Azerbaijan beneath Aliyev’s management have undergone a basic change. Following the ultimate defeat of Armenia and the return of all of Karabakh in September 2023, senior Baku officers got here to the conclusion that spotlight ought to be paid to sustainable growth in a variety of areas. That is mirrored, for instance, in “Globes” report that the Innovation and Digital Improvement Company of Azerbaijan (IDDA) is providing Israeli startups that relocate to the nation a full exemption from company tax, property tax, land tax, and dividends tax for a decade.
Transferring nearer to the US
In relation to overseas coverage vis-à-vis the US, Azerbaijan believes that the street to Washington passes by Israel. As first reported by “Globes,” Azerbaijan’s oil and gasoline firm, SOCAR, acquired a ten% stake within the Tamar offshore gasoline subject from Israeli businessman Aaron Frenkel in January. US large Chevron has a 25% stake in Tamar, and it’s well-known that US President Donald Trump has deep ties to senior figures within the US vitality business.
SOCAR was not glad with simply the Tamar subject and in March signed up with Israel’s Ministry of Vitality and Infrastructure for gasoline exploration licenses in Israel as a part of a consortium by which SOCAR is the operator, alongside its companions BP and Israel’s NewMed Vitality (TASE: NWMD). The licenses have been awarded to the successful group in Cluster I, which covers an space of 1,700 sq. kilometers in Israel’s northern financial waters.
When SOCAR approached the Israeli gasoline market, it appeared, amongst different issues, on the capacity to attach a pipeline to Turkey. Of the roughly 10.09 BCM produced from the Tamar reservoir in 2024, 34% was offered to Jordan – the Hashemite Kingdom is crossed from south to north by the Fajr gasoline pipeline, which connects to Syria so far as Homs and from there branches off to Tripoli in Lebanon and Banias in western Syria. In accordance with estimates, the price of connecting from Homs to the Turkish gasoline infrastructure can be about $200 million, a sum that’s not costly in business phrases. Now, with the historic assembly between the US President and his Syrian counterpart Ahmed al-Sharaa, Azerbaijan hopes that it “guess” appropriately.
Printed by Globes, Israel enterprise information – en.globes.co.il – on Might 15, 2025.
© Copyright of Globes Writer Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.
