TEHRAN, BAKU, TEL AVIV (Combined Sources)—Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to Iran said a $1.6 billion arms deal with Israel, which was announced Sunday, was made “to liberate occupied Azerbaijani land,” Iranian news agencies reported Tuesday.
The Azeri ambassador, Javanshir Akhundov, acknowledged the arms purchase after getting confirmation from his government when Iran challenged Azerbaijan on the reported arms deal, reported Agence France Presse. Akhundov acknowledged that the weapons would be used on the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which Baku contends is “occupying” Azeri territory.
Akhundov was called in to the foreign ministry to explain the weapons and to receive a warning that Israel must not be permitted to use Azerbaijan to stage “terrorist acts” against Iran.
The Iranian agencies quoted Akhundov saying that Baku “will not allow the weapons to be used against third nations, in particular the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Israel Inks $1.6 Billion Arms Deal With Azerbaijan
Israeli defense officials on Sunday confirmed $1.6 billion in deals to sell drones as well as anti-aircraft and missile defense systems to Azerbaijan, bringing sophisticated Israeli technology to the doorstep of archenemy Iran, reported the Associated Press.
Tel Aviv said the deal between the Azeri government and the Israeli state-run Israel Aerospace Industries is not linked to Iran’s nuclear development program or Iran’s alleged involvement in plots to Israeli diplomats in Azerbaijan, India and Georgia.
Reporting on the story for Eurasianet.org Joshua Kucera wrote that “regardless of the ongoing ratcheting up of tension between Israel and Iran, and increasing attention to Israel’s intelligence activities in Azerbaijan, these weapons are destined to be used not against Iran,” but against Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia.
In September, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Armed forces shot down an Israeli-made unmanned drone flying over Karabakh airspace, near the village of Vazgenashen in the Martuni region.
Israel and Azerbaijan have been developing their military alliance in recent years, culminating in a decision in September to develop drones and other military hardware in Azerbaijan using Israeli defense technology.
“Israel is a valuable arms partner for Azerbaijan not because of anything related to Iran. Rather, Azerbaijan has a lot of money, and Israel has top-quality defense manufacturers. And Baku is restricted in what it can buy from the U.S. because of opposition by pro-Armenia members of Congress, plus the U.S.’s general desire not to inflame the situation in Karabakh. And it’s limited in what it can buy from Russia because of Russia’s alliance with Armenia (occasional missile defense sales notwithstanding). Israel has no such concerns,” said Kucera in his report for Eurasianet.org.
The AP reported Tuesday that Israeli officials have said they will not warn the US if they decide to launch a pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. The pronouncement, delivered in a series of private, top-level conversations with US officials, sets a tense tone ahead of meetings in the coming days at the White House and in Congress.
Israeli officials said that if they eventually decide a strike is necessary, they would keep the Americans in the dark to decrease the likelihood that the US would be held responsible for failing to stop Israel’s potential attack, said one US intelligence official familiar with the discussions. The US has been working with the Israelis for months to convince them that an attack would be only a temporary setback to Iran’s nuclear program.
Israeli defense officials confirmed that there are no plans to alert the US ahead of time about any operation against Iran, though they stressed no decisions have been made on whether to attack. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing a confidential security matter.
Both states are criminals! what can you expect from Israel, they cant recognize the sufer of other poeple because they are afraid to loose the bigest business of the holocaust! how egoist and hipocrit they are
Both countries are rogue states. Israel has no shame whatsoever. They’ll sell arms to make money but one day the same weapons could be used against them. they have not learned anything from history!
What I think really happened is that Israel gave it to Azeribaijan for free so Israel could attack Iran from there.
israel in bed with pre-islamist countries again. this will backfire on them too, no pun intended.
Enough drones already….can’t Azerbaijan buy heavy weapons from Israel so we can capture those too, just like in “Round 1?” It appears the Armenians didn’t whoop the Tatars’ butts enough and they want a “Round 2.”
don’t be so naive, they are getting training, which will make them more effective than last time. But blitzkrieg style invasion is impossible.
we are fighting for our home they are fighting for there stolen land
i wish i will be alive and witness the day that will come as the bible says that the blood will be spilled from anatolia all the way to jerusalem
If the Azeri’s attack they will lose Kantzag and all the territories north of Garabakh, all the way to the Georgian border.
Bring it on you coward Azeris.
Armenia always wants a piece so thats why we are always prepared for war
as for azerbejan thye are a cinfused country with oil, but at the same time they are morally wrong and pschologically incompitant to stand any chance of any war.
Man. Talk about a bad week. So these idiots think they can take back Karabakh with their stupid sophisticated weapons? It will take more than that morons. What? they think Armenia is sitting there with arms folded? Too much bark but no bite. Oh and about Israel, Time to demand that our government cut billions of dollars of aid to them. Who’s up for it?
The cunning Israeli Zionists have turned the Jewish Holocaust into a lucrative business. On one hand, they grab the spotlight, claim exclusivity to Genocide, and through such exclusivity to victim image they rob American tax payers blind. On the other hand, they use the charities donated to them, by the blind Evangelicals in particular, to build sophisticated weapons to sell for profit and to manipulate the politics of the world in their favor no matter who may suffer as a result of their criminal actions.
They say what goes around comes around. I’m sure they will be rewarded for their selfish criminal actions sooner or later.
Armenia needs to purchase some excellent Chinese surface to air (anti-aircraft missles) surface to surface ballistic missles and anti-tank missles. These can defeat many of Israel’s weapons systems. Shooting down a drone is easy work for the S-300 but Armenia can buy cheaper missles to shoot down the low priority targets. Armenia can also purchase the Type 99 and Type 98 tanks. The visit my the Chinese military should be a great opportunity for purchasing Chinese weapons which are more cheaper than other countries. Armenia could fund this by extracting oil in Nagorno Karabagh.
Armenia and the NKR need to start extracting the oil in the deposits in the Mardakert region.The oil is located primarily in the town of Maragha where the Maragha massacre took place in 1992. ( http://aisor.am/en/news/2010/10/21/maragha/?sw.html.){http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/politics/news/66841/.html) The Azeris killed the Arnenians in the Maragha village because they wanted the oil deposits in Maragha.Armenia and the NKR need that oil for domestic production which would save Armenia billions of dollars especially with the expected rise in oil prices. Armenia has no need to sell this oil because we don’t want to anger the Russians.
That would be wasted effort to spend money on this project too close to contact line, unless we extract in Artsakh and refine in Armenia. Use the oil as reserves for wartime.
The NKR and Armenia need to convert the Mardakert province into a huge military base and oil extraction center.If Armenia uses a system of extensive minefields and other fortificatons along the border, then the Azeris will not be able to attack directly allowing the oil to be extracted even during wartime.
I assume that they will sell the Spyder surface to air missle system and they have already sold the spike LR anti-tank missle and the LAR-160 system to the Azeris. Armenia can counter all those systems with better tanks, anti-radiation (radar destroying missles) and buying for BM-30 and other longer range multiple launch rocket systems for counterbattery fire.. I know what I am talking about because i was in the military.
everything is done now the question is ..when Azergotjan will attack Armenians
And yet some idiots in the ARF believe that Israeli will recognize the AG and jump like little puppies every time anyone in the Knesset mentions the words “Armenian Genocide”. These Jews are selling high tech arms to the tune of nearly 2 billion dollars to our neighboring enemy yet they claim to be diplomatically “friends of Armenians” through “shared pain and sorrow”.
When are you clowns in the ARF going to wake up from you “ztovitz ztov” pipe dream and stop wasting the Diaspora’s resources on lining up your own agendas. Yes the AG is important, but we have bigger fish to fry at the moment as a nation and as an ethnic group of people. My fellow Diasporan youth need to think beyond “recognizing the Armenian Genocide”, there is a war ahead and we should be preparing for it, not squandering Diasporan resources on black and white Armenian Genocide banners to wave in Times Square and in front of the Turkish consulate.
Recognition of the AG won’t be that great when it’s at the expense of Arstakh and current Armenia proper, eshak davarner.
“Akhundov acknowledged that the weapons would be used on the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic”
Did Akhundov realy recognize Artsakh as “Nagorno-Karabakh REPUBLIC”?
If these arms are to be used against Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, the additional weapons that may come with the shipments are in preparation to attack Iran’s Nuclear facilities from Azeri land, Azerbaijan should be smart enough to know what is good for him, in a new war he may lose teritories to Iran and to Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, it seems GREED and STUPIDITY is going hand in hand in Azerbaijan.
As for Armenia this is a good opportunity to go into Arms manufacturing business, there is NO industry that can make more money than Arms if it’s good for Israel it can be good for Armenia.
Israel is sponsoring terrorism against Armenia and Armenians. Who said history doesn’t repeat itself.
It is truly sad,that Armenia,has to be bordered by two sewers,turkey and azarbajturk (ian is Armenian), how can they stand the the putrid smell.
the azergotjanis can use all the spy planes with big risks , we quietly gets satellites
pictures from our big brother !
Artsakhians will never be under Azeris.
Now Jews are under Azeris. Let them enjoy their honeymoon.
That makes Israel our enemy, and the defender of Turks everywhere!!!
Turks just don’t get it intimidation does not work against Armenians. It didn’t work the first time pre Artsax war and it certainly is not going to work now. One thing still remains a fact that Azeris had a military advantage they had more weapons and more soldiers during the war but we all know how that worked out for you.
If war breaks it’s going to be nasty. We should win the war in the first 2-3 days otherwise it might drag and be detrimental for us. I’m sure jew advisors will be helping the azerbaboons, Turkey might get involved then Iran and eventually Russia and Nato. We should bomb the oil installations during the very first hours!
Like Norin Radd says we should stop waving our tail like small puppies when some hypocrite in the Knesset mentions the AG! There are far more serious problems facing us!
youre delusional if you think itll take a couple days.
it took mighty america 3 weeks to occupy iraq, but they still havnt secured it.
what may be a possibility, since both armenia and azerbaijan are similarly armed (azerbaijana more so), is something like the 8 year war that iraq had with iran.
wake up all armenians and prepare to sacrifice. its not fair for the locals to bear the burden of war. were fortunate to live in freedom and peace in the diaspora. so when the time comes be ready to give back, sacrifice and volunteer. we may be in it for the long haul, but whatever the case i know were prepared. big up to beirut, US, canada, france, syria, egypt, jerusalem, argentina…gamavors from everywhere
Bigmoustache. 3 of the field marshals of the soviet union during the great second war, were from the small land of Artsakh. These people are all strategical geniuses. The only reason they are not sitting in Baku drinking Armenian brandy is because both Russia and America will not be happy about it. So please don’t bring the iraq iran war and iraq america war as an example.
Russia is delivering helicopters to the Azeries… I always wondered what exactly Russia’s interests are in the Caucasus.
http://www.news.az/articles/politics/55655
Great news.
Just like in the last war, we will take these shiny new weapons and use them against the azeri.
Almost 30% of the tanks in Karbagah were the tanks left behind by the azeri.
But I hope if they are foolish enough to attack, this time we take back Nackachivan as well
all we need is 2006 lebanon style army and some new low price itms and then we see who can win . if you look 2006 lebanon israil war you can see what lebanon people did 33 days so nothing hard and also i belive we need king to control armenians thats it.
The Russians want to keep this conflict hot so that the Azeris will not joint NATO and that the Nabucco pipeline will not be built.
The problem is, this is not a sustainable policy. You cannot keep it going for a long time.
The Russians should help the Armenians invade western Azerbajian to grab the oil pipeline and then anex the land to Russia and Armenia. The Russians had no brains for having given all that territory to those Mongol rapist Azeris while giving Armenia so little land.
Russia would absolutely support Armenia in case of war. Armenia has enough weapons to defeat the azeris. I am not worried we saw what happened to Georgia in 2008 for the tiny piece of land of South Ossetia. Armenia is vital for Russian interests in the Caucasus. Russians secretly arm Armenia and NK and they are tons of proof on this issue. Even the 150.000 NK Defense Army has more tanks than Azerbaijan and the geographical advantage is on our side.
Armenia needs to recognize the State of Palestine because it is the right thing to do and it will also be a good way to teach the Israelis a lesson.
Israel sold the weapons to the Azeris to retaliate against Armenia because they refused to stab Iran in the back .Armenian officials said no to the Israeli requests to use Armenian bases to attack Iran .That was the whole reason for the Israeli meetings with Armenian officials last year. Iran is Armenia’s best ally and friend after Greece, Lebanon and Russia and we have been neighbors for 1000 years and good neighbors need to protect their good neighbors.
John,
Were details of these meetings publicized? Or are you guessing? I’d like to know.
All our resonces apart, I want to see what was Armenian government’s reaction to this latest Israeli inirect act of war aginst Armenia!!!
Armenia needs to invite the PLO to set up offices in Yerevan as a friendly gesture. The PLO wants peace but Israel and nutty Netanyahu have no interest in peace and have turned Israel into a facist Nazi-like state.
You can not please the turks to like you by selling weapons to them. The turks eventually will use it against you. This is lesson number one to the Israeli government. Stop your honeymoon with the turks. Kapish…
all these wars are national and propogated by internation al ‘communities’ not love or Godliness and obviosly by party this an d that for their own people, no resolution for other people and little care for people of nutreal an dpositive involvment in any community
Message to Random Armenian> There was mention of secret meeting between the Armenian government and the Israeli government were reported in Azbarez and various other political online sites and it was speculated that the reason for these meeting were for Israel to establish military facilities in Armenia and spy facilities to monitor Iranian communications , missle launches and other military activities. This big Israeli arms sale to Azerbajian coincided with a deal with Israel to allow them to use Azeri land for attacks in Iran and to spy on Iran which the Iranians have complained about.
Armenia need to join the Eurasian Union and this will have great advantages for Armenia. Russia is our only true ally and as a landlocked nation surrounded by enemies, we need to join the Eurasian Union to benefit economically and overcome the embargo. Joining the Eurasian Union might even convince Russia to recognize the NKR.
ABC news had an interesting story about the agreement between Israel and Azerbaijan. This below is a quote taken from ABC news”
“The first report in Foreign Policy quotes anonymous American officials saying that Israel has been given access to airbases by Iran’s northern neighbor Azerbaijan from which Israel could launch air strikes or at least drones and search and rescue aircraft”
Nothing new at all. The azeris were getting an help from Israel and the jews before the collapse of the Soviet Union. All the Ukrainian and Russian mercenaries were sent to Karabakh by the soviet Jews. For some strange reason, Israel, just like Turkey and Pakistan, has become an anti-Armenian state. They don’t even want to create a diplomatic relations with Armenia. There must be some kind of a plan behind this.
Bingo. Do you realize Armenia sits on vast water reserves? Connect the dots.