US Needs to support strong Azerbaijan-Israel strategic ties

Steve Witkoff, the special envoy of US President Donald Trump, arrived in Baku on 14 March after an overnight visit to Moscow. The Jerusalem Post said the visit “appears to be a well-coordinated diplomatic move between Israel, the US, and Azerbaijan”. Before the visit dozens of prominent rabbis sent letters to US President Donald Trump urging him to include Azerbaijan in the Abraham Accords.
In February, Hikmet Hajiyev, assistant to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, visited Israel and met the Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu. The recent natural gas exploration agreement signed on 17 March between Azerbaijan and Israel steps up the Azerbaijan-Israeli alliance in the energy security field as well.

Azerbaijan’s critical role in Israel’s energy security      

Azerbaijan and Israel have a strong strategic alliance covering a wide range of areas including not only energy, but also security, defence, trade, investments, cybersecurity, agriculture and culture. SOCAR’s 10-percent stake in the Tamar gas field expands Azerbaijan’s role in Israel’s energy sector and in the Eastern Mediterranean too. The operator of the Tamar field is the US oil and gas giant Chevron. The project aligns with Donald Trump’s vision of strengthening economic stability in the Middle East via strategic investments, particularly in energy.

In another project Azerbaijan and Israel signed a work plan for the exploration and discovery of offshore natural gas reservoirs in areas adjacent to the Leviathan field, one of the world’s largest deep-water gas discoveries. Azerbaijan’s SOCAR was granted a licence in October 2023 as part of a joint consortium together with Britain’s BP and Israel’s NewMed. Progress was delayed due to the outbreak of the war following the Hamas terror attacks against Israel on 7 October 2023. But on 17 March an Azerbaijani delegation, headed by SOCAR officials and the Minster of Economy Mikayil Jabbarov, paid a visit to Israel. During the visit the gas exploration agreement was signed, overseen by Mikayil Jabbarov and Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen. The agreement gives SOCAR, the operator of the consortium which includes BP and NewMed, the right to explore in one offshore block in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Azerbaijan plays a wider role in Israel’s energy security: estimates show that Baku is Israel’s largest oil supplier, providing around 40 percent of the country’s crude oil via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Considering that diversification and non-reliance on Arab oil have been a cornerstone of Israeli energy security over the years, Azerbaijan has been a vital energy partner. This has been proven once more during the war in Gaza. In the midst of the conflict, Azerbaijan continued oil supplies to Israel, despite being pressurised by various countries, in particular Iran and Turkey, and coming under attack from Qatari-financed media outlets as well as Western leftist activists such as Greta Thunberg. Physical attacks against the SOCAR HQ in Istanbul, organised by groups operating in Turkey and tacitly backed by Islamist circles within the Turkish government, failed to influence Azerbaijan’s foreign policy. The attacks showed that Azerbaijan’s national interests and strategic alliance with Israel cannot be influenced by a third party, not even one as close as Turkey. This is because Baku’s foreign policy is based on national interests as a sovereign state and prevents third parties having a say on bilateral relations. When most Western airlines suspended their flights to Israel, Azerbaijani state airline AZAL continued its flights to Tel Aviv with only brief interruptions.
The growing energy ties between Azerbaijan and Israel as well as Baku’s role in Israeli energy security should be backed by the Trump administration, as Azerbaijan’s crucial role was not appreciated by the previous Biden administration.

Abraham Accords and Azerbaijan

Dozens of rabbis recently sent letters to US President Donald Trump urging him to include Azerbaijan in the Abraham Accords, which were a major foreign policy achievement for Donald Trump during his first term. In their letters, the rabbis rightly point out that despite Azerbaijan having strong ties with Israel since 1992 and being an important friend, it has not been treated accordingly by the United States all these years. They cite the example of the previous Biden administration that reinstated Section 907 to the Freedom Support Act, which prevents US assistance to the Azerbaijani government. Azerbaijan’s inclusion in the Abraham Accords would highlight the country’s role as a model for Jewish-Muslim coexistence and cooperation. Considering that President Trump aims to expands the Abraham Accords, the inclusion of Azerbaijan as well as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan should be prioritised, as these countries’ ties with Israel, the importance of the Middle Corridor and energy security make them reliable partners for the United States as well. Recognition by the United States of Azerbaijan’s role in Israel’s energy security as well as strong ties between Baku and Jerusalem is vital, and Section 907, which prevents US assistance to the Azerbaijani government, needs to be repealed.
Azerbaijan has been a close US partner in energy security over the decades. It took part in the US NATO mission in Afghanistan and served as a logistics hub for the mission. US-Azerbaijan ties became strained under the Biden administration, particularly as a result of the one-sided approach of the then Secretary of State Anthony Blinken who took an unjust stance against Baku for liberating and re-establishing sovereignty over the formerly Armenia-occupied Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As President Aliyev of Azerbaijan noted, Secretary Blinken’s wrong policies “ruined” Azerbaijan-United States ties despite Baku’s role as a reliable US partner in the missions in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as its energy partnership with Washington.
Azerbaijan is a critical country in containing Iran’s malign activities in the South Caucasus region, and is also playing a central role in reducing tensions between Israel and Turkey in the Syrian theatre following the fall of the Assad regime and the ascent to power in Damascus of Al Qaeda offshoot the HTS.
It is time for the US to re-evaluate its relations with Azerbaijan, taking into account Baku’s key role in the energy security of vital US allies Israel, Turkey and the EU, and as one of the initiators of the Middle Corridor, a transport route bypassing both Russia and Iran. The Trump administration should also waive Section 907, which punishes Azerbaijan for defending its legally recognised territory.