Azerbaijan has put forward its candidacy to deploy troops for a future stabilisation force in the Gaza Strip, Politico news outlet reported on Wednesday, citing US defence officials.
According to Politico, Azerbaijan, along with Indonesia and Pakistan are the top contenders - from outside of the Arab world - to supply troops to a stabilization force that is a key point of Donald Trump's plan to demilitarize and reconstruct Gaza after the end of the hostilities between Israel and Hamas. The US president's 20-point plan stipulates that Arab countries and other partners deploy a temporary force, dubbed the International Stabilisation Force (ISF), that will train Palestinian police forces in consultation with Jordan and Egypt. The stabilization forces will not include any US troops.
The US, Azerbaijan, Indonesia and Pakistan have refused to officially comment on the media's request for comment. Negotiations on the makeup of the stabilization force in Gaza are underway. The ISF, under the US Central Command, will be deployed at a civil-military coordination center north of Gaza in Israel. Troops from Qatar, Egypt and the UAE are already stationed at the coordination center, with the Egyptian troops assisting to retrieve corpses of slain Israeli hostages in Gaza.
The involvement of Azerbaijani and Indonesias troops complicates the stabilization efforts as these countries are not in the area of responsibility of the United States Central Command, CENTOM, a US defence official said. Several elements of the transition remain unestablished. To date, the Trump administration has not introduced any additional technical teams or coordination groups from the State Department or other branches of the U.S. government to help ensure the process progresses smoothly.
Reports about Azerbaijan's potential involvement in the ISF emerged after President Ilham Aliyev's participation in the 2025 Gaza peace summit held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt on October 13. Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attended the summit in Egypt upon Donald Trump's invitations. The two leaders also met with Trump in early August in Washington where signed a Peace Declaration ending over three decades of war and agreeing to open a transit corridor - dubbed Trump Road - to connect Azerbaijan to its breakaway Nakhchivan exclave via Armenia's southern Syunik region. Since that time, Trump has frequently claimed credit for resolving the long-running dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan, also referencing the peace process between the two nations during the summit in Egypt "We have Armenia and Azerbaijan. That’s a little war that we stopped’, Trump said addressing the summit in Egypt.
Azerbaijan has close ties with Israel, supplying over half of Israel's petrol as of 2013 and importing Israeli weapons. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Israeli weapons amounted to 69% of all imports to Azerbaijan in 2016-2020. In addition, Azerbaijan has positioned itself as a negotiator between Tel-Aviv and Ankara, hosting talks between Israel and Turkey aimed at reducing tension in Syria in April. Azerbaijan has also reportedly hosted the talks between Israel and Syria in summer.
