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Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar visited Baku on Sunday to expand ties with Azerbaijan amid Iran’s continued violent crackdown on protests that has left thousands dead.
Saar condemned Iran’s repression in a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov.
“A genocide of an unimaginable scale is occurring in Iran,” Saar said at the Azerbaijan Foreign Ministry. “The slaughter of people by the regimes that rule their own countries. If this is how they act towards their own people, how would they be expected to act towards other countries?”
Israel supports protesters calling for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic, while Baku monitors developments affecting Iran’s Azerbaijani population, estimated at 15 million to 20 million people in northwest Iran.
The number of casualties in Iran’s crackdown on protests has been estimated at around 3,100 by state media and more than 30,000 by independent sources. Since the internet was almost completely shut down, verification was no longer possible.
Saar arrived with a delegation of more than 40 Israeli companies and business organizations for meetings and business forums that included Jewish community leaders.
“Israel and Azerbaijan are both economically advanced countries and pillars of stability in the region,” Saar wrote in X. “The presence of a high-level business and economic delegation today is an expression of our desire to strengthen the strategic and economic relationship between our two countries.”
The countries announced plans to deepen cooperation in energy, defense, water management, agriculture and tourism.
Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR has acquired a 10% stake in an Israeli gas field, its first investment. Economy Minister Mikhail Dzhabarov said that the total mutual investment between the two countries is approximately $600 million.
In 2025, 60,000 Israeli tourists will visit Azerbaijan. Approximately 130 Israeli-invested commercial entities operate in the country.
The Azerbaijan National Federation of Entrepreneurs’ Associations and the Israeli Manufacturers Association signed a memorandum of understanding covering business missions, corporate meetings and investment surveys.
“Azerbaijan and Israel have solid foundations of political trust and constructive dialogue, supported by long-term cooperation at both political and institutional levels,” Dzhabarov said.
Azerbaijan is home to around 30,000 Jews, along with a majority Muslim population, making it one of the largest Jewish communities in the South Caucasus.
