On March 28, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov left for an official visit to Israel and Palestine, the Press Office of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry reported.

Also, Samad Seyidov, the chairman of the international relations and interparliamentary relations committee of the Milli Majlis, Anatoliy Rafailov, the head of the Azerbaijan-Israeli interparliamentary relations working group, Arzu Nagiyev, Aghalar Valiyev, Fatma Yildirim, Elnur Allahverdiyev, Asim Mollazade, and Rasim Musabayov, the members of the group, visited Tel Aviv, Israel. Within the framework of the visit, the deputies of the Milli Majlis participated in the opening ceremony of the Embassy of Azerbaijan in the State of Israel.

The meeting between Bayramov and Eli Cohen

At a joint press conference with Jeyhun Bayramov, his colleague from Azerbaijan, in Jerusalem on March 28, Israel's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Eli Cohen, said Azerbaijan is a strategic partner of Israel. "The opening of the embassy reflects the strategic relations between the two countries," he added. He emphasized that the opening of the Azerbaijani embassy is of great importance in the 30-year history of relations between the two countries: "We cooperate in regional security, energy, tourism, and other fields. Azerbaijan has one of the largest Jewish communities in the Muslim world."

Bayramov, for his part, said that the opening of the Azerbaijani embassy in Israel shows that the relations between the countries have reached a new stage. At the same time, he said that the Jewish community in Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijani diaspora in Israel play an important role in developing bilateral relations.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Minister also had a meeting with the Prime Minister of Israel, Beniamin Netanyahu.

On March 29, the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Israel began its activities.

Notably, a year after Azerbaijan regained its independence in 1991, Israel opened its embassy in Baku. Azerbaijan did not have an embassy in Israel. On November 19, 2022, the Milli Majlis approved opening an embassy in Israel and a representative office in Palestine. Mukhtar Mammadov was appointed extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador of Azerbaijan to the State of Israel by the decree signed by the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, on January 11. On March 26, Mukhtar Mammadov presented his credentials to the President of Israel, Ishak Herzog. Azerbaijan's decision to open an embassy in Israel coincides with the time of tensions in Iran-Azerbaijani relations. The current Iranian government, based on anti-Israel ideology, is critical of Azerbaijan's relations with Israel.

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