Defense Ministry DG said to have visited Azerbaijan 2 days before start of fighting

Defense Ministry Director General Eyal Zamir visited Azerbaijan two days before Baku launched a military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh, Army Radio reports.

The visit comes amid stepped-up Israeli arms supplies to Azerbaijan in recent weeks.

Azeri forces used heavy artillery fire on Armenian positions in Nagorno-Karabakh, an attack that local officials said killed or wounded scores of people.

Azerbaijan has called the artillery fire an “anti-terrorist operation” and said it would continue until the separatist government of Nagorno-Karabakh dismantles itself and “illegal Armenian military formations” surrender.

Today, the sides announced a ceasefire would go into effect.

Israel is in the midst of a public expansion of bilateral ties with Azerbaijan, a Shiite-majority country closely allied with Turkey that has seen its partnership with the Jewish state flourish.

In March, Azeri Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov opened Baku’s first-ever embassy in Israel.

President Isaac Herzog visited Azerbaijan in May, where he discussed the Iran threat and bilateral ties.

Israel is one of Azerbaijan’s leading arms suppliers. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Israel provided 69 percent of Baku’s major arms imports in 2016-2020, accounting for 17% of Jerusalem’s arms exports over that period.

Israel stepped up its weapons shipments to Azerbaijan during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Azerbaijan emerged victorious in that six-week war with Armenia, which claimed the lives of more than 6,000 soldiers and resulted in Baku regaining control over disputed territories.

It is an open secret that two of the pillars of the relationship are Azerbaijan’s location on Iran’s northern border and the fact that Israel buys over 30 percent of its oil from Baku.

AP contributed to this report.