Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. Photo: Facebook.

A senior Azerbaijani official met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem this week to discuss bilateral ties and regional developments, underscoring Azerbaijan’s growing role as a strategic player in the evolving Middle East.

The high-level meeting between Hikmet Hajiyev, assistant to the president of Azerbaijan, and Netanyahu took place amid strengthening ties between the Jewish state and the predominantly Shi’ite Muslim country.

“Mr. Hajiyev conveyed the greetings of President Ilham Aliyev to Prime Minister Netanyahu,” the Azerbaijani Embassy in Tel Aviv said in a statement, adding that both sides discussed expanding bilateral cooperation and addressed key developments in the region.

Azerbaijan’s ties with Israel have long been significant, with the country serving as the Jewish state’s most vital ally in the Caucasus and Central Asia for more than three decades, fostering a partnership that spans energy security, defense, and intelligence.

As of 2019, Azerbaijan supplied over a third of the Jewish state’s oil. Meanwhile, Baku has acquired advanced Israeli defense systems, including the “Barak MX” missile system and surveillance satellites, and remains a leading buyer of Israeli military hardware, which was crucial in its 2020 war with Armenia.

Earlier this month, Israel and Azerbaijan’s state oil company, SOCAR, struck a major energy deal, marking one of the latest examples of Azerbaijan’s growing influence in the Middle East.

Azerbaijan’s strategic importance stems not only from its economic influence in the region, but also from its role at the crossroads of a growing pro-Western bloc countering the regional ambitions of Iran, with which Azerbaijan shares a long border.

The Abraham Accords reshaped regional alliances during US President Donald Trump’s first term, and his current administration could further this shift, with Azerbaijan – a country that shares hundreds of miles of border with Iran while maintaining strong ties with Israel and Turkey – playing a key role in balancing regional power blocs and advancing Trump’s goals for the Middle East.

According to Ze’ev Khanin, a professor of Eurasian geopolitics at Bar-Ilan University and a senior research fellow at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Azerbaijan is a key part of strategic alliances that he calls “unclosed triangles,” with Baku comprising the missing link.

“We are living in the world of so-called unclosed triangles, which is unlike what we had in the 19th century and 20th centuries – when the enemy of my enemy is my friend and the friend of my friend is also my friend,” he recently told The Algemeiner.

One prominent example is the unclosed triangle of Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Israel. Despite strained ties between Turkey and Israel, Azerbaijan continues to use Turkey as a transit point for energy exports to Israel.

“The Turks didn’t stop the stream of Azerbaijani energy through Turkey to Israel,” Khanin said, adding that Ankara was eager to position itself as a transit hub for energy exports to Europe.