November 27, 2017 - 10:55 AMT
Knesset lawmaker urges Israel to halt weapons sale to Azerbaijan

Member of the Israeli parliament Tamar Zandberg has criticized Israel’s policy of exporting weapons and military technologies to Azerbaijan in a post to her Facebook page, according to CTech.

Zandberg referred to a July incident in which Israel-based UAV manufacturer Aeronautics Defense Systems Ltd. allegedly carried out a live demonstration of one of its suicide drones on an Armenian army post at the request of its client, the Azerbaijani army.

In early November, the Israeli police announced that Aeronautics is under criminal investigation

Zandberg wrote that she had appealed to the Israeli Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman, requesting that he cancels Aeronautics’ license to import drones to Azerbaijan, where, she said, they could be used to fuel the ongoing conflict in Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh), violating the fragile ceasefire agreement between the two countries. Ms. Zandberg’s letter to Mr. Lieberman was included in a motion for a class action suit filed against Aeronautics by the company’s investors. The suit, for $115 million (NIS 403 million), was filed today at the Tel Aviv District Court.

“Israel’s involvement in violent conflicts in the Caucasus region is nothing new,” Zandberg wrote, citing a 2008 incident in which Israeli military exporters were involved in a Georgian attempt to take over the South Ossetia region, an operation that developed into a regional war with Russia. That incident caused a major embarrassment to the Israeli foreign and defense ministries, Zandberg said.

Also, the lawmaker said that according to the official website of the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry, the AZAD Systems factory in the country can manufacture parts for Aeronautics’ drones Aerostar and Orbiter 2, as well as Killer1, which is similar to the Orbiter 1K. This means that Azerbaijan could still manufacture Aeronautics drones, despite the freeze of Aeronautics export license to the country.