Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has postponed a planned visit to Azerbaijan due to security developments in Gaza and Syria and a packed political-security agenda, his office announced Saturday.
Netanyahu was scheduled to travel to Baku on Wednesday for a five-day official visit and meetings with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. The visit, which would have included a weekend stay, was set to take place roughly 10 days after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian visited the same country amid ongoing nuclear talks between Washington and Tehran.
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Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 2016
(Photo: GPO)
In a statement, Netanyahu’s office said the trip would be rescheduled and thanked Aliyev for the invitation, adding that the prime minister “appreciates the warm relations between the two countries.”
Azerbaijan, a Shiite Muslim country bordering Iran, has emerged as a key strategic partner for both Israel and Turkey. Despite regional tensions, Azerbaijan maintained firm support for Israel throughout the ongoing war and even increased its energy exports to Israel during the war—now supplying nearly half of Israel’s fuel needs, up from a third prior.
Aliyev has recently positioned himself as a regional mediator following a visit by Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, who has led diplomatic efforts in the area. Aliyev has held meetings with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and newly appointed Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, boosting his status as a potential diplomatic bridge in the region. Both Israel and the United States reportedly see him as a rare figure capable of engaging all sides.
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An Israeli delegation led by National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi also met with a senior Turkish delegation in Baku, in talks reportedly brokered by Aliyev.
Economically, ties between Israel and Azerbaijan have deepened in recent months. Azerbaijan’s national oil company recently acquired a 10% stake in Israel’s Tamar gas field, in a deal estimated at around $900 million. In March, Azerbaijani energy giant SOCAR and British company BP were granted licenses to explore natural gas in Israeli waters—marking SOCAR’s first exploration venture outside Azerbaijan.
Additionally, Israel’s Technion opened a cybersecurity center in Baku, and Azerbaijani construction giant Accord won an Israeli government tender to supply 1,600 construction workers to projects in Israel.
The Trump administration is reportedly working to include Azerbaijan in the Abraham Accords, the series of normalization agreements between Israel and Arab and Muslim-majority nations. Witkoff raised the issue during his recent talks with Aliyev in Baku.