Focused on Iran? Exploring the rationale behind the strategic relationship between Azerbaijan and Israel

摘要

This article, unlike the small but rapidly expanding body of literature on Azerbaijan’s relations with Israel, focuses on the role of Iranian influence as a factor strengthening the strategic partnership that has been successfully blossoming between Azerbaijan and Israel in areas of economic, cultural, developmental and more recently, military cooperation. This study aims to examine the key characteristics of bilateral cooperation between the two countries and seeks to investigate the incentives which have aided to create and cement this atypical partnernship. Among a variety of mutual interests that have allowed the Azerbaijani–Israeli partnership to flourish, this study emphasizes the pivotal role of Iranian–Israeli hostilities which correlate with Azerbaijan’s own grievances with Iran. This study argues that the discrete but strategically important partnership between Azerbaijan and Israel is encouraged not only by the existence of mutually beneficial economic incentives but also by the security threats emanating from Iran.