Azerbaijan hosts Israel-Turkey meeting aimed at laying out “red lines” in Syria
- 11 April, 14:54
Amid the growing confrontation over influence in Syria, Israel and Turkey have held a meeting to prevent friction in the region, a source familiar with the matter has told Jerusalem Post.
The two countries’ representatives met in Azerbaijan on Wednesday to discuss a “deconfliction mechanism” aimed at preventing unwanted incidents in Syria, the source said. According to the source close to Israel, during the meeting, Tel-Aviv “made it unequivocally clear that any change in the deployment of foreign forces in Syria, in particular the establishment of Turkish bases in the Palmyra area, is a red line.”
Furthermore, Israel made it clear that any operation that endangers Israel will threaten the rule of the Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Confirming the talks with Israel, Turkish sources stressed that talks in Azerbaijan mark the beginning of efforts to avoid potential clashes or misunderstandings between Israeli-Turkish operations in the region. “Efforts will continue to establish this mechanism,” the source said, without providing any further details.
Azerbijan’s hosting the Turkish-Israeli talks over Syria comes as no surprise. Baku is Ankara’s close ally and has strong diplomatic and military relations with Tel-Aviv. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev revealed on Thursday that “the first successful normalisation between Turkey and Israel was, to some extent, mediated by Azerbaijan”.
Addressing an international forum titled “Facing a New World Order” in Baku, Aliyev noted that both countries are close friends of Azerbaijan.
“With Turkey, we are allies. We signed the Shusha Declaration in 2021, and formally became allies, though our alliance relationship de facto existed long time before this formal procedur,” he said.
“Israel is a friendly country to Azerbaijan, and for many years, mutual friendship have been demonstrated in difficult times for both of us. Therefore, of course, these tensions between the two countries are very disturbing for us, and a matter of concern. As it is already known, though we never made it public ourselves, but already it circulates quite broadly,” Aliyev went on saying.
Turkey and Israel have traded accusations of meddling in Syria following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime. Israel accuses Turkey of trying to turn Syria into a Turkish protectorate, while Ankara has denounced Israeli military activity in the neighboring country.
