Israel under diplomatic fire over arms to Azerbaijan | THE DAILY STAR

A major supplier of arms to Azerbaijan, Israel has come under diplomatic fire from Armenia over the struggle between the Caucasus neighbors in disputed Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenia, a country long-seen as close to Israel's nemesis Iran, only opened an embassy in Tel Aviv on September 17, but Yerevan recalled its ambassador barely two weeks later, citing weapons sales to Azerbaijan.

While Israel's president Monday spoke with his Armenian counterpart and attempted to smooth the waters, the Jewish state's weapons exports to Baku will be difficult to give up.

The diplomatic rift came shortly after press reports, based on data from flight tracing site Flightradar 24, cited the takeoff of an Azerbaijani cargo plane from southern Israel.

The site said the aircraft, operated by Azerbaijani carrier Silk Way, took off from Ramon Airport, located near the Ovda military base, on the eve of the outbreak of hostilities.

Beyond this single example, Azerbaijan has a long track record of buying Israeli arms - to the extent that Iran in 2012 summoned the former's ambassador to voice its concerns.

And while the Israeli defence ministry does not publish details of sales by country, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in 2016 said his country had bought $4.85 billion in defence equipment from the Jewish state (4.1 billion euros at current prices).