The Minister of Agriculture, Oded Forer, visited Azerbaijan this week, where he toured the unique project ‘The Smart Village’, which was established only 7 km from the Iranian border and examined the assimilation of Israeli technologies held in the development of the project.
Closest to Iran: As part of the close and strategic relations between Azerbaijan and Israel, Agriculture Minister Oded Forer visited the country and toured the unique “Smart Village” project, which was established only 7 km from the Iranian border, where he examined the assimilation of Israeli technologies.
The visit took place after a meeting between Minister Forer and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Minister Forer: “I am happy for the opportunity to visit the smart village near the border with Iran and see a lot of Israeli knowledge and technology that builds life. It is wonderful to see how Israeli agriculture breaks boundaries and is a national pride.”
Minister Forer’s visit took place in the development of a ‘smart village’ in southwestern Azerbaijan in an area called Zangilen in the Nagorno – Karabakh region only 8 km from the border with Iran and about 120 km from the Iranian central city of Tabriz.
The Iranians, on the other hand, claim that these are not smart villages but Israeli intelligence bases designed to spy on and harm Iran and have repeatedly expressed their protest to the Azeri government over the existence of the project.
Zangilen is located in the southern part of the Nagorno-Karabakh territories that were returned to Azerbaijan at the end of the war with Armenia in 2020.
Due to the close and strategic relations between Azerbaijan and Israel, President Aliyev decided that Israel would be Azerbaijan’s main partner in the development of agriculture in Azerbaijan in general and in Nagorno-Karabakh in particular.
In this context, the Smart Village is the flagship project of Azerbaijan, and Azerbaijani citizens are expected to move there in the coming weeks.
Israeli companies lead its agricultural activities, including the establishment of cowsheds with Israeli technology.
Minister Forer is the first Israeli minister to visit the Karbach territories after the war. He is also the most senior Israeli figure to arrive so close to the Iranian border.
As mentioned, the visit takes place after months of great tension between Azerbaijan and Iran, in which Iran accused Azerbaijan of hosting Israel’s military and intelligence bases.
In October 2021, Iran even held a huge military exercise on the Azerbaijani border, with the participation of 40,000 troops, threatening Azerbaijan that it must expel the “Zionists” from it.
In response, during one of President Aliyev’s visits to the Iranian border, he was publicly photographed stroking an Israeli UAV, and vehemently refused to succumb to Iranian threats, since tensions between the two countries seem to have subsided, but hostility to suspicion is still at its peak.