Azerbaijani Foreign Minister to visit Israel for the first time

Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister, Elmar Mammadyarov, will make an official visit to Israel next week, according to the Israeli's IzRus, citing unnamed official sources in Baku. Official Baku has not commented on the news.

It will be the first visit of Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister to Israel. Until now, the bilateral relations between Baku and Tel-Aviv have been hampered due to Tehran’s sharply negative reaction. Iranian authorities have threatened to apply sanctions against Baku, Azerbaijan develops relations with the "Zionists."

Such demonstrative disregard to views of the southern neighbor can be explained by recent acts of the Iranian parliament, where a group of MPs has launched a campaign to phase out the Gulistan Treaty of 1813, under which Azerbaijan was divided between Russia and Iran. Now Iranian deputies proposed to return the "lost territories".

Despite the violent protests in Tehran, Azerbaijan and Israel actively develop bilateral relations. So, today Israel is the largest supplier of arms to Azerbaijan, In addition, parties negotiate on Azerbaijan's participation in the development of gas fields  near Israel in the Mediterranean Sea. -02D-