Autor fotografie: Mil.ru, CC BY 4.0|Popisek: Contingent from the Armed Forces of Armenia on Red Square in 2015
As if to add another element to the huge turmoil in the world – Israeli and Iranian made weapon systems will be involved in a fight this time not in the Middle East but over Eastern Europe/West Asia. This after Armenia decided to purchase Iranian made weapon systems to be used in its military conflict with Azerbaijan, a major client of Israeli made systems.
According to Iran International, the website operated from London by the opposition to the regime in Teheran, Iran and Armenia have inked a significant $500 million military contract. Since the fall of Soviet control in the early 1990s, Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two significant wars, with Azerbaijan regaining huge portions of its territory in 2020. The main theater of the protracted battle, Nagorno-Karabakh, was taken over by its forces last year.
The defence ties between Azerbaijan and Israel are very close
January 1, 2024 marked the official dissolution of the ethnic Armenian enclave in Nagorno-Karabakh following Azerbaijan's lightning onslaught and occupation of the region on September 19, 2023. The defence ties between Azerbaijan and Israel are very close. This country has a long border with Iran. Azerbaijan has in recent years purchased some Israeli developed weapon systems including loitering weapon systems to answer specific operational requirements. These systems were used extensively during the Nagorno-Karabakh war in 2020 between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Video clips from the war zone showed heavy use of Israeli loitering weapon systems by the Azeris.
In 2018 the Azeris acquired the Elbit Systems SkyStriker loitering weapon system. This as part of this country's plan to acquire autonomous strike capabilities. In the past this country has purchased another loitering weapon system, the Harop made by Israel aerospace industries (IAI). It also purchased the Lora, long range surface – surface precise rocket. The Harop has been developed to destroy high quality targets.
Israeli systems will be used against Iranian made ones
The new deal signed between Iran and Armenia is expected soon to create confrontations between the two countries where Israeli systems will be used against Iranian made ones. Sharing a roughly 420 mile-long border with Iran, the two countries have had an up-and-down relationship over the years. Jerusalem is hoping to utilize hidden tensions between Baku and Tehran for its own purposes. Officially, the Israeli defense establishment is not commenting on the way Azerbaijan may help Israel in a future conflict with Iran. "This is a very sensitive issue, and we better shut up" one defense source said. A very senior Israeli defense figure that talked on condition of anonymity said that the importance of the close defense relations between Israel and Azerbaijan is "at the highest level,” but would not go into more specifics.
Israel is tight lipped on the issue. But it can be said without any doubt that the excellent defense relations with Azerbaijan offer Israel some "potential" benefits – deploying sensors on this country's soil, using its long border with Iran to enable "better penetration" of special units into Iran. Iran has recently admitted that that Israel managed to make a deep penetration into some of its most covert bodies. More options – using Azerbaijan for an "easier" access of the Israeli airforce into the Iranian air space. Defense ties between the two nations are not new, with Azerbaijan a reliable client for Israeli-made weapons systems through the years. Research made by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) shows that Israel accounted for 27 per cent of Azerbaijan’s imports of major arms over the decade 2011–20. Most of these deliveries took place in 2016–20.
While there is sufficient information available publicly to determine the types of weapon supplied by Israel to Azerbaijan, little is known about the actual number of arms transferred. Of the major arms supplied by Israel, loitering munitions, reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), guided missiles and ballistic missiles were known to have been used in the 2020 war with Armenia as well as during some of the earlier border skirmishes.
SIPRI estimates that arms exports to Azerbaijan accounted for 17 per cent of Israel’s total exports of major arms in 2016–20, showing the growing importance of Azerbaijan for the Israeli arms industry. In 2016 President Aliyev stated that Azerbaijan had spent $5 billion on military equipment from Israel. There is some speculation as to whether economic revenue is the primary driver for Israel’s ongoing arms transfers to Azerbaijan or if there are other major motives,
Azerbaijan has a long-standing Jewish community
Israeli sources say that in recent years the "variety" of Israeli made weapon systems sold to the Aperies "has grown dramatically". But the ties go deeper than simply an industrial client relationship. Despite being a majority Shiʿa Muslim country, Azerbaijan has a long-standing Jewish community without major documented conflicts between the two sides, according to research prepared by Rusif Huseynov, the director of Azerbaijan's Topchubashov Center, and published on the website of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African studies.
In fact, Huseynov writes, when Azerbaijan declared victory over Armenia in November 2020, Israeli flags were seen among the chanting crowds. In turn, Israel now relies on Azerbaijan heavily for petroleum imports. And both nations, he writes, are vulnerable to Iran’s missile program.
“Although Baku usually states that Azerbaijani-Israeli partnership is not built against a third party, the Islamic Republic of Iran feels both uncomfortable and vulnerable,” Huseynov writes. “It is also psychologically difficult for the Tehran regime to accept the fact that a Shiʿa-majority nation cultivates excellent relations with a Jewish state. Therefore, the threats against Azerbaijan from the top Iranian authorities have been quite common since the mid-1990s. In September 2021, the Iranian side assembled thousands of soldiers along the Azerbaijan border and staged a large military drill. The threat generated an immediate reaction of Baku. President Ilham Aliyev sent his message to Tehran by gently caressing the Israel-made Harop kamikaze drone in front of cameras.”
By Arie Egozi