Azerbaijan navigates deep Israel ties while managing Iran and Turkey

Azerbaijan maintains close ties with Israel, selling the Jewish state oil and purchasing Israeli arms, while at the same time maintaining complicated ties with states hostile to Israel, including Iran and Turkey.

By World Israel News Staff

Azerbaijan is increasingly positioning itself as a regional power able to maintain close relationships with countries that are themselves bitter rivals, a senior researcher said in an interview published on Wednesday, as Baku deepens military cooperation with Israel while at the same time preserving ties with Turkey, and keeping diplomatic channels open with Iran.

Baku’s strategy has become increasingly difficult as wars and tensions surrounding the South Caucasus intensify, particularly following this year’s confrontation with Iran and growing friction between Israel and Turkey over Syria.

“We cannot close our eyes and say there is no Iran, there is no Russia. There are,” Nargiz Mammadova, a research fellow in international relations at the CASPIA Center, told The Media Line during a recent visit to Israel.

Azerbaijan borders both countries, while Turkey is among its closest allies and Israel has developed into one of its most important defense partners.

The relationship with Israel has played a particularly significant role in Azerbaijan’s military development.

Israel has supplied Baku with drones, loitering munitions, missiles and air-defense systems for years. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Israel supplied 69% of Azerbaijan’s major arms imports between 2016 and 2020, including weapons subsequently used during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.

Israeli-made Harop loitering munitions and reconnaissance drones were among the weapons credited with helping Azerbaijan overcome Armenian defenses during the fighting.

Farid Shukurlu, an international law and security researcher, told The Media Line that Israeli-Azerbaijani defense cooperation is now at an unprecedented level, although he stressed that Baku does not intend to allow the partnership to turn the country into a staging ground for attacks on its neighbors.

That issue became particularly sensitive during the war with Iran, as Tehran repeatedly suspected that Azerbaijan’s territory could be used to facilitate Israeli operations.

Baku has firmly denied those allegations.

Tensions nevertheless erupted in March when Azerbaijan accused Iran of sending four attack drones toward its Nakhchivan exclave. One was intercepted, while others struck or fell near civilian infrastructure, including Nakhchivan International Airport and a school. Four people were reported wounded.

Iran denied carrying out the attack.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev rejected that denial and ordered the military to prepare retaliatory measures.

“We will not tolerate this unprovoked act of terror and aggression against Azerbaijan,” Aliyev said at a Security Council meeting.

Days later, Azerbaijani authorities accused Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of organizing several plots inside the country, including planned attacks on the Israeli Embassy in Baku, a synagogue, a Jewish community leader and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.

Despite the confrontation, Baku has subsequently worked to stabilize relations with Tehran. Aliyev and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian have spoken repeatedly since the fighting, discussing bilateral cooperation, humanitarian assistance and regional stability.

That willingness to preserve ties with Iran reflects the broader foreign-policy approach Azerbaijan has pursued for years: close cooperation with one regional power does not necessarily mean severing relations with another.

Turkey presents a different challenge.

Ankara is Azerbaijan’s closest strategic ally, with the two countries bound by linguistic, cultural, military and economic ties. Turkey also helped Azerbaijan develop its drone capabilities and strongly supported Baku during its conflicts with Armenia.

At the same time, relations between Turkey and Israel have deteriorated sharply, particularly over Gaza and Syria.

For Azerbaijan, however, choosing between the two is not an attractive option. Israeli defense technology remains important to its security, while Turkey is central to Azerbaijan’s regional strategy and provides the main route for much of its energy exports.

The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline carries Azerbaijani crude through Georgia and Turkey to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. From there, significant quantities are shipped to Israel.

Israeli imports of Azerbaijani crude through Ceyhan reached a three-year high in 2025 despite Turkey’s ban on direct trade with Israel. Ankara has said it does not determine the final destination of crude owned by exporters using the pipeline.

The arrangement gives all three countries an economic stake in maintaining the flow. Azerbaijan needs the export route, Turkey benefits from the pipeline and associated infrastructure, and Israel receives a substantial share of its crude supply through Ceyhan.

Baku has also attempted to use its relationships with both Israel and Turkey to prevent their disputes from escalating into direct military confrontation.

Azerbaijan has hosted talks aimed at establishing communication and deconfliction mechanisms between Israeli and Turkish officials as both countries expand their interests in Syria. Concern over a possible clash has increased following Israeli strikes on Syrian military facilities that Jerusalem said could be used to support a growing Turkish presence.

Azerbaijan has simultaneously played a role in contacts involving Israel and Syria. Aliyev has publicly confirmed that negotiations between Israeli and Syrian officials have taken place with Azerbaijani mediation.

The effort reflects Baku’s broader attempt to transform its unusual network of relationships into diplomatic leverage.

Azerbaijan is a predominantly Muslim country closely allied with Turkey, maintains strategic military and energy ties with Israel, shares a long border and economic interests with Iran, remains connected economically to Russia and is pursuing a lasting settlement with Armenia following decades of conflict.