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Netanyahu to Visit Azerbaijan in Effort to Deepen Strategic Ties Amid Regional Tensions
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. Photo: Facebook.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to Azerbaijan next Wednesday for a five-day visit to meet with President Ilham Aliyev and further strengthen bilateral cooperation amid regional tensions.
Netanyahu’s trip, facilitated by Baku’s mediation that led Turkey to approve his transit through Turkish airspace, comes just days after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian visited Azerbaijan amid ongoing nuclear negotiations with the United States.
Last year, Turkey barred Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s aircraft from flying over its territory, which prevented him from attending the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Baku.
During the upcoming visit, Netanyahu and Aliyev are expected to address Turkey’s role in Syria and the recent Israeli-Turkish discussions held in Baku, focused on avoiding potential clashes or misunderstandings over military operations in the region.
Scheduled from May 7 to May 11, Netanyahu’s visit will also include a series of high-level meetings focused on strengthening Israeli-Azerbaijani relations, covering areas such as defense cooperation, energy, trade, and regional security. The Israeli leader will also meet with representatives of Azerbaijan’s Jewish community.
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 a predominantly Shi’ite Muslim country that shares a lengthy border with Iran while maintaining strong ties with both Israel and Turkey, Azerbaijan holds a unique strategic advantage in stabilizing regional tensions and supporting efforts to normalize relations.
Earlier this month, for example, Azerbaijan positioned itself as a regional mediator by hosting talks between Turkish and Israeli officials in Baku, aimed at preventing unintended incidents in Syria, where both countries maintain a military presence.
“Azerbaijan plays a unique role in Israel’s broader strategy by serving as a potential bridge for normalizing relations between the Jewish State and other Muslim-majority countries,” Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, told The Algemeiner in an exclusive interview.
He explained that Baku has contributed to regional normalization efforts in the past, notably by facilitating the restoration of full diplomatic ties between Turkey and Israel in 2022, even though the relationship between the two countries has since gone downhill.
According to Schneier, as a strong ally of both Jerusalem and Ankara, Azerbaijan is well-positioned to mediate further diplomatic breakthroughs.
Baku’s strategic importance stems not only from its role at the crossroads of a growing pro-Western bloc countering the regional ambitions of Iran, but also from its economic influence in the region.
Azerbaijan and Israel have continued to expand their cooperation and strengthen their bilateral ties, especially in the energy sector, highlighting the predominantly Shi’ite Muslim country’s emerging role as a strategic player in the Middle East.
Earlier this year, Jerusalem and Azerbaijan’s state oil company, SOCAR, struck a major energy deal. In March, SOCAR also signed a gas exploration license agreement with the Jewish state.
As of 2019, Azerbaijan supplied over a third of Israel’s oil. Last year, Jerusalem was the sixth-biggest buyer of oil from Baku, with sales totaling $713 million.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan 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.
The post Netanyahu to Visit Azerbaijan in Effort to Deepen Strategic Ties Amid Regional Tensions first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.