TEHRAN – Leading a large delegation, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen started a tour of Iranian neighbors in the north with great fanfare. The tour comes amid the growing siege of Israel from various directions.

Before leaving for Baku, Cohen was keen to remind observers why Israel attaches all this importance to the Republic of Azerbaijan. “Azerbaijan is a Muslim country and its strategic location makes the relationship between us of great importance and great potential. I am leaving today for an important diplomatic visit to continue to build, together with our good friends in Baku, a united and strong front against the challenges we share and to deepen our cooperation in the fields of economy, security, energy and innovation,” the Israeli foreign minister said in a statement. 

The statement also said the visit “comes on the backdrop of the tightening of government coordination and the warm and strategic relations that peaked recently with the opening of the Azerbaijani embassy in Israel.”

In Baku, Cohen met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who has taken remarkable measures to give Israel a foothold in the backyard of Iran. His recent decision to open an embassy in Israel and appoint an ambassador to Tel Aviv raised tensions with Iran, which sees Israel-Azerbaijan relations as driven by mutual mischief toward Iran. 

Baku has insisted on expanding its relations with Israel despite knowing that these relations are met with great suspicion in Iran. In his meeting with Cohen, Aliyev said the bilateral cooperation agenda of Israel and Azerbaijan is expanding, calling for the deepening of ties with Israel in many areas, including security. 

After Azerbaijan, Cohen flew to Ashgabat on Wednesday night to open Israel’s “closest” embassy to Iran. With this visit, Cohen became the first Israeli minister to visit the Caspian state in nearly three decades.

Israeli media effusively celebrated the move as “offering Israel an enticing possible means of entry into the Islamic Republic as it tries to stop Tehran’s nuclear program.”

While Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan sought to distance the visit from Iran to some extent, the Israelis did little to hide their ulterior motives. Israel’s officials and media openly put the visits to Baku and Ashgabat within the broader context of enmity toward Iran, indicating that Tel Aviv is activating the northern front against Iran after it succeeded in closing in on Israel and its relations with the Persian Gulf Arab states. 

Developments of recent weeks in the region indicated that Israel has now become beleaguered, with various resistance groups in the region creating a united front against Tel Aviv. And the volatile situation in the West Bank threatens to join this front.

Israel’s hopes for normalization with Saudi Arabia have gone up in smoke, too. Israel used to portray Iran’s southern Arab neighbors as potential allies against Iran. But its continued aggression against Palestine and stubborn opposition to Palestinian rights helped unravel the Abraham Accords. As Cohen was bragging about security cooperation with Azerbaijan against shared challenges, Hamas leaders and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were in Saudi Arabia in a sign that the Arab country could be weighing a renewed Palestine reconciliation.