Azerbaijan First Shiite Country to Open Embassy in Israel

March 30, 2023

by: JNS

Thursday, 30 March 2023 | Azerbaijan was set on Wednesday to become the first Shiite Muslim country to open an embassy in Israel, with the two countries’ foreign ministers meeting in Jerusalem ahead of the inauguration ceremony.

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen called the arrival of an ambassador from Baku and the opening of a permanent embassy in the Jewish state “historic” after 30 years of diplomatic ties.

“Azerbaijan is a strategic partner of Israel,” Cohen said at a press conference with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, emphasizing the close coordination on regional security with an emphasis on countering Iran, which shares 428 miles [689 km.] of border with Azerbaijan, split into two noncontiguous sections.

“Israel and Azerbaijan share the same perception of the Iranian threats,” Cohen said. “The Iranian ayatollah regime threatens both our regions, finances terrorism and destabilizes the entire Middle East.”

Bayramov thanked Jerusalem for supporting “Azerbaijan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity during almost 30 years of illegitimate occupation of Azerbaijan’s territories by Armenia.”

Cohen is set to visit Baku next month.

Israel has operated an embassy in Baku since 1993, a year after relations were established. It was one of the first countries to recognize Azerbaijan’s independence after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

In late February, Azerbaijan’s first-ever ambassador to Israel, Mukhtar Mammadov, arrived in Tel Aviv before presenting his credentials to Israeli President Isaac Herzog and taking up his post. Mammadov, the outgoing deputy education minister and a veteran of both the education and foreign ministries, had been working from the Azerbaijani trade office in Tel Aviv and will now move to the embassy.

Posted on March 30, 2023

Source: (This article was originally published by the Jewish News Syndicate on March 29, 2023. Time-related language has been modified to reflect our republication today. See original article at this link.)

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