Netanyahu set to visit Azerbaijan

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to visit Azerbaijan in the ‘near future’, the Israeli media outlet Israel Hayom reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources.

The exact date of the trip was not mentioned.

News of the planned trip was also reported by the Jerusalem Post, which also cited an unnamed source.

If the visit pans out, it would be Netanyahu’s third such trip to Azerbaijan — he first visited in 1997 during his first term as prime minister, and then again in 2016.

There were few specific details about the possible trip, with Israel Hayom only reporting that talks would likely centre around Turkey, energy issues, and a key area of overlapping interests, the mutually difficult relations with Iran.

The announcement follows a flurry of diplomatic activity involving Azerbaijani officials, including President Ilham Aliyev, in connection with Israel.

Earlier in April, various media outlets reported that Aliyev mediated talks in Azerbaijan between Israel and Turkey, who are currently at odds over conflicting interests in Syria.

At the time, Aliyev highlighted the role his country could play in fostering talks between Turkey and Israel, saying that ‘both countries are close friends of Azerbaijan’.

‘The process [of normalisation], to my mind, should not stop, and Azerbaijan is doing everything in its position to facilitate the process’, Aliyev said.

While already tense, Turkey’s relations with Israel have soured even further since the beginning of the war in Gaza, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan calling Netanyahu the ‘butcher of Gaza’.

Prior to this, Turkish–Israeli ties went through more than a decade of diplomatic freeze which ended in 2022 — an agreement that Aliyev said he had also helped mediate.

Azerbaijan and Israel have emerged as somewhat unlikely allies in recent years, and have maintained close ties even as perceptions of Israel across the bulk of the Muslim world have plummeted since the beginning of the war in Gaza in 2023.

Many have credited Israeli-manufactured arms as playing a crucial role in helping Azerbaijan achieve success in its 2023 final lightning offensive against Nagorno-Karabakh.

Israel signs deal granting Azerbaijan’s SOCAR the rights to explore natural gas production

The agreement was the latest sign of increasingly close ties between Israel and Azerbaijan.

OC MediaNate Ostiller