Azerbaijan and Syria discuss energy cooperation as they rebuild ties

The leaders of Azerbaijan and Syria on Saturday pledged to deepen their cooperation particularly in the capacity sector as they moved to revitalize the ties that had been strained under former Syrian President Bashar Assad Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev expressed hope that the visit to Baku by Syria s interim Ahmad Al-Sharaa whose rebel forces toppled Assad in December would significantly contribute to the progress of bilateral relations Al-Sharaa thanked Aliyev for Azerbaijan s brotherly advocacy to Syria and declared that Assad s ruling body had harmed relations with countless countries including Azerbaijan according to the Azerbaijan president s press function The leaders also highlighted plans to to export Azerbaijani gas to Syria via Turkey and Azerbaijan s expected role in rebuilding Syria s ability infrastructure it stated The new bureaucrats in Damascus have strong relations with Turkey Azerbaijan s close ally Baku which also has close relations with Israel has in fresh months served as an intermediary to diffuse growing tensions between Turkey and Israel in the Syrian arena In April Turkey and Israel held technical talks in Azerbaijan to establish a de-escalation mechanism to prevent undesirable incidents in Syria Source