A STABLISING FACTOR

The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will soon visit Azerbaijan. The second visit of Netanyahu to the Azerbaijani capital will take place under a complex situation in the Middle East and the South Caucasus. Azerbaijan and Israel were able to develop a strategic partnership in a difficult geopolitical situation. Israeli engineering and technology brilliantly proved itself on the battlefield in April this year.

We discussed the priorities of cooperation with an Israeli political scientist and the president of the Center for Eastern Partnership, Abraham Shmulevich. 

- How do you find the current level of relations between Azerbaijan and Israel?

- Our relations are very good, dynamic, and strategic for both states. Israel is one of the first countries that recognized Azerbaijan's independence. Our relations are developing in many spheres of economy, trade, culture, etc. In political terms, the only problem is the opening of the Azerbaijani Embassy in Israel. It would be useful for Baku to more actively develop the relations. The diplomatic mission in Israel has been working in Baku for more than 20 years. In principle, Israel understands the position of Baku on this issue. In Armenia, there is no embassy, ​​but the Armenian Church plays the role of the socio-political center conductor of Armenian politics in Israel. Thanks to the lobbying of the Armenian Patriarchate, several members of the Israeli parliament supported the adoption of the resolution on "Armenian genocide". The Armenian Church has been very active with the Knesset. It is investing a lot of money in the promotion of its political interests. Azerbaijan is not that active, therefore, the Israeli public, politicians, and parliamentarians are more familiar with the Armenian position, rather than from the arguments of the Azerbaijani side.

- Does the level of these relations allows Israel to transfer modern weapons to Baku, which Tel Aviv delivers only to the most trusted partners? For example, the anti-missile system Magic Wand. These systems are able to shoot down Russian Iskanders, which Armenia is using for blackmailing against us.

- In principle, Israel may well deliver the latest missile defense system to Azerbaijan. Problems can arise, if Russia expresses a protest, or the United States, which generally opposed the transfer of such weapons to other states. If there are no such barriers, Azerbaijan is likely to receive this anti-missile system. It also depends on the overall development of cooperation between our countries. In particular, the opening of diplomatic mission in Israel.

- How realistic is the establishment of security partnership between Israel, Turkey and Azerbaijan?

- This is a great idea. And in such an alliance, Baku could play a role of a stabilizing anchor. But again, everything depends on the activity of the Azerbaijani diplomacy in Israel. Currently, one cannot observe such activity on the part of the Azerbaijani diplomacy in Israel.

- What are the prospects of cooperation between Baku and Tel Aviv in the fight against international terrorism? Eventually, the ISIS will be destroyed. It is hard to imagine that any intelligence in the world is informed better than Israel about the escape routes of the terrorists.

- We have very good prospects for the joint fight against international terrorism. Our countries are equally interested in the non-proliferation of religious extremism. Terrorist organizations had made numerous attempts to destabilize the situation in Azerbaijan. I think that this interaction between the two countries is simply not advertised.

- In fact, Azerbaijan played an important mediating role in the normalization of the Turkish-Russian relations. Is it possible that Azerbaijan is entrusted such a mission to normalize Israeli-Iranian relations?

- Israel is not experiencing enmity towards Iran. The Hebrew and Farsi peoples have always been friendly to each other. Before Ayatollah Khomeini, we had very close and friendly relations between our countries. The anti-Israel rhetoric is an element of Iran's foreign policy, which wants to gain the sympathies of the Sunni world. Perhaps in Iran they believe that if Jews reconcile with the Sunnis, they will together commit aggression against the Shiites. But Israel has repeatedly stated that it has no claims against Iran. Israel has no interest in bad relations with Tehran. So, in terms of normalization, it all depends on Iran’s position. The problem in Turkish-Russian relations was not so deep. Of course, if Baku was able to change Iran's point of view on relations with the Jewish state, that would be wonderful.