Israel has removed from the Knesset agenda a vote on recognizing 'the Armenian genocide', reportedly under pressure from Azerbaijan, according to the Israeli daily Haaretz.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blocked the vote after Hikmat Hajiyev, a senior foreign policy adviser to Azerbaijan's president, contacted his office. Israeli officials subsequently assured their Azerbaijani counterparts that the issue had been removed from the parliamentary agenda.
Sa'ar rejected suggestions that the vote was cancelled due to Netanyahu's intervention but offered no alternative explanation. "There is a government decision, it was approved unanimously and will not be changed," he said, calling it "an important and historic event".
Baku urged Israel to reconsider, arguing that politicizing the 1915 events does not serve reconciliation.
