If Israel responds to Iran, Azerbaijan will be its ally in our region — Grigor Balasanyan

If Israel responds to Iran, Azerbaijan will be its ally in the region, Grigor Balasanyan, Associate Professor of the Department of International Relations at YSU and international affairs specialist, told Alpha News.

“If Israel does decide to respond to the ballistic missiles fired by Iran last week, it will, in fact, have two options, and, as always, it will not act alone. It has been a year since Israel went to war with Hamas, and this year has shown that the Israeli army is not able to do anything alone. As always, it will look for allies, and in our region, naturally, it will be Azerbaijan.

First of all, Israel will try to take control of the Armenian-Iranian border to prevent possible aid or cargo delivery to Iran. Secondly, it will strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities, although Tehran has already strengthened their air defense systems,” Balasanyan said.

According to the expert, Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system has demonstrated its ineffectiveness against hypersonic ballistic missiles.

“There is a third option. Israel will not attack Iran because it has experienced the power of 200 ballistic missiles. Although they claim that these missiles practically did not reach their targets, in fact we have all seen footage of rockets raining down on Israeli territory like iron rain. Basically, the Iron Dome air defense system has demonstrated its low effectiveness against ballistic and hypersonic ballistic missiles. This gives me reason to believe that Israel, in any case, will refrain from strikes this time, having seen what Iran actually possesses and what the consequences will be for it,” Balasanyan concluded.