Report: Azerbaijan Offers to Mediate Between Israel and Turkey

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has offered his services as an intermediary between Israel and Turkey, after both countries helped him to win a victory over Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh several weeks ago, according to Axios on Wednesday.

Both Turkey and Israel supplied Azerbaijan with drones and other weaponry during the conflict, finding themselves on the same side of anything for the first time in over a decade of verbal hostilities.

Aliyev raised the Israel-Turkey tensions in a recent call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Israeli officials were quoted as saying

Aliyev’s advisers told their Israeli counterparts that Erdoğan responded positively to the suggestion of improving relations.

Despite Erdoğan’s long record of virulent anti-Israel and anti-Semitic speeches, the advisers claim that he is not anti-Israel, but had been incited by aides who no longer advise him.

Azeri Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov brought up the possibility of reconciliation on a recent call with his Israeli counterpart, Gabi Ashkenazi.

But Israeli officials said they’ll have treat the image of a new, friendlier Erdoğan with great caution.