Israel in £1bn Azerbaijan weapons deal

IsraeL yesterday confirmed deals worth £1 billion to sell drones, anti-aircraft and missile defence systems to Azerbaijan.

Israel’s ties with Azerbaijan, a Muslim country that became independent with the disintegration of the Soviet Union, have grown as its once-strong strategic relationship with Turkey, has deteriorated, most sharply over Israel’s killing of nine Turks aboard a ship that sought to breach Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip in 2010.

For Israeli intelligence, there is also a possible added benefit from Azerbaijan: its significant cross-border contacts and trade with Iran’s large ethnic Azeri community.

Earlier this month, Iran’s foreign ministry accused Azerbaijan of allowing the Israeli spy agency Mossad to operate on its territory and providing a corridor for “terrorists” to kill Iranian nuclear scientists.

Azerbaijan dismissed the Iranian claims as “slanderous lies.”