WASHINGTON, March 29 (UPI) — Israel has access to airbases in Azerbaijan near Iran’s northern border to use in a military strike against Iran’s nuclear sites, sources told a U.S. magazine.
Unnamed senior diplomats and military intelligence officials were interviewed in the Foreign Policy magazine report, “Israel’s Secret Staging Ground,” published Wednesday.
“The Israelis have bought an airfield … and the airfield is called Azerbaijan,” a senior administration official was quoted as saying.
The Azeri military has four abandoned Soviet-era airfields that would potentially be available to Israel and four air bases for their own aircraft, the report says, quoting details from Military Balance 2011 from the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
Senior U.S. intelligence officials are increasingly concerned Israeli military expansion in Azerbaijan will hamper efforts to dampen tensions with Iran, an official told Foreign Policy.
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