Alwaght- While Azerbaijan's officials have repeatedly denied any Israeli influence in their country, there is much evidence showing that the Israelis are massively present in the Caucasian country and have added cultural and military activities to their economic interactions with this country.
The Israeli regime opened its embassy in Azerbaijan in 1993 and since then boosted its ties with Baku, and their bonds have been developing at all levels to date. Their relations grew closer in recent months following eruption of Karabakh tensions with Armenia, and reports revealed that the Israeli Defense Minister Yeni Gantz in early October paid a secret visit to Baku.
In search of legitimacy, the Israeli regime has long been aspiring for a toehold in the Muslim countries, and Azerbaijan has been of great importance for the Israeli leaders. The Israeli regime's strategy for influence has been entry from the economic cooperation door and particularly investment in various economic sectors. Azerbaijani minister of economy a couple of months ago said that the trade with Tel Aviv in 2021 roughly doubled and in the first quarter of 2022 it grew nearly six folds.
Seriously in need of oil, Tel Aviv has heavily invested in Azerbaijani energy sector. It needs to secure its oil needs from the regional countries and Azerbaijan is in the center of the regime's focus for this need. According to statistics Israeli regime imports around 40 percent of its oil from Azerbaijan. The oil arrives to the occupied territories via Turkey's Ceyhan port and thus energy is playing a consolidating role in the two sides’ relations.
Influence in the Azerbaijani society's body
The Israelis claim that their presence in Azerbaijan is merely for economic interests, but the fact is that they have secret goals. To build their influence in the Azerbaijani society, years ago the Israelis established Azerbaijan Jewish Society and sent thousands of Jews to the Muslim country. Actually, they are following the same policy they followed a century ago in Palestine and three decades later led to occupation of the Arab country.
The founder and president of the Ethnic Understanding Foundation in the US last year in a speech admitted that the world's largest Jewish community exists in Azerbaijan, showing that Tel Aviv has substantial plans in Azerbaijan and currently pursues them quietly due to Azerbaijani and regional sensitivities. This Jewish community, which includes religious missionaries, had penetrated the Azerbaijani society to sway it in line with the Israeli policies. Recently, the Israeli cabinet allocated $25 million to set up a camp for the Jews of Russian origins wishing to migrate to the occupied Palestinian territories. These refugees are mainly Russian Jews that intend to migrate as the Russian-Ukrainian war unfolds. Last month, Russia closed down the Jewish Agency branch in Moscow for the Israeli regime's supports to Ukraine in the war. This decision prompted Russian Jews’ migration efforts, but since Israel cannot take them in, it intends to settle them in Azerbaijan-based camps near the Russian borders.
Estimations suggest that at least 600,000 Jews of Russia are able to migrate to the occupied territories according to this Israeli program. But it should be taken into account that the Russian Jews are not very much interested to migrate to Palestine and are more fit for Eurasian region. So, Azerbaijan can be the best choice for Israel to both support the Jews and at the same time upsize the Jewish community in this country. Tel Aviv can use a heavyweight Jewish community in Azerbaijan to sway Baku policies.
Since Shiite Muslims account for a majority of the Azerbaijan's population, the country is especially important for the Israelis. Claiming that the Shiites around the world are backed by Iran and implement the Islamic Republic's programs in their countries, the Israeli regime finds them a threat to its existence and bends over backwards to counter them. The anti-religious policies of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev over the past decade, including ban on Ashura ceremonies, are part of Israeli project carried out in association with Baku.
Although the Israelis are present in various countries driven by a pre-planned strategy, Baku leaders are cooperating with them based on their needs and without awareness of their plans and intents. Azerbaijan has seen strained ties with Armenia for three decades over border issues and is seeking to attract allies in this dispute. Having in mind that Armenia has a highly strong lobby in the US that supports its interests in the dispute with Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani leaders are trying to establish close ties with the Israelis for support of the Zionist lobby in the US for a balance with Armenia. Given the deep influence of the Zionist lobby in the US politics, Baku-Tel Aviv ties can prove beneficial for Aliyev regime.
Another driving force for Azerbaijan's closeness to Israel is the former’s military weakness. Always in a state of war with Armenia, Azerbaijan seeks to procure arms from foreign actors to tip the scales in its favor. Israeli arms can help Baku to this end. Over the past decade, Israel sold billions worth of arms to Azerbaijan and during the recent Karabakh war, some sources said that Baku used advanced Israeli-provided drones on the battleground.
According to official statistics, in 2020, Azerbaijan purchased 70 percent of the arms it needed from Israeli regime, and this percentage has been increasing year by year, putting Baku among the largest buyers of Israeli arms. The arms deals provide Tel Aviv with a good opportunity to secure new markets and make huge profits.
Threats to Iran's national security
Apart from Israeli-Azerbaijani economic and security relations, Tel Aviv follows anti-Iranian schemes from Azerbaijan's soil. Viewing Iran as its archenemy, the Israeli regime seeks to watch Iran closely and presence in Azerbaijan provides it with a vantage point. The Israelis also try to wreak Baku-Tehran relations to advance their destructive projects.
However, Iran has repeatedly warned that it does not tolerate Israeli regime's presence near its borders, and Azerbaijan, which is aware of Tehran's sensitivity, pledged it would not allow its soil make a launching pad for attacks on its southern neighbor. Still, Israel's presence is growing in this country day by day and Iran expresses its concerns. During a phone conversation with his Azerbaijan counterpart, Iran's Foreign Minister Hussein Amir-Abdollahian stressed that presence of foreign forces in Caucasus is a common concern of the regional states and conveyed to Baku the Islamic Republic's opposition to deployment of foreign forces to the region.
As Iran by boosting ties with Syria and Lebanon tries to move close to the occupied Palestinian territories to check the Israeli threats posed to Tehran-led Axis of Resistance, the Israeli regime is following the same strategy against Iran from Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is neighbor to Azeri-speaking Iranian provinces in northwest and since some Azerbaijani officials lay some sectarian and separatist claims on these Iranian regions, the Israelis seek to destabilize them when the need arises and conduct their project against Iran's territorial integrity.
The Israelis are present in Azerbaijan to send their drones into Iran for data collection from sensitive regions. The New York Times in a report titled Secret History of Pressures to Attack Iran reported that Israeli spy drones used Azerbaijani bases to fly for espionage over Iranian nuclear sites and even in 2012 the Israelis intended to strike these nuclear sites using these Azerbaijan-based drones.
Azerbaijan unwittingly consolidates the Israeli presence on its soil in pursuit of its goals day by day. Baku should know this harms its friendly and neighborly relations with Tehran, and since the Islamic Republic more than once made it clear that it confronts the Israeli activities at full tilt, the regional peace and stability may fall victim to the Israeli ambitions and warmongering.
