Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Thursday at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem with Azerbaijan Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov to congratulate him on the opening of the Azerbaijan Embassy in Israel.

The meeting also included the appointment of his country’s first Ambassador to Israel.

They discussed common regional security challenges and the threat Iran poses to regional stability, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office.

Netanyahu praised the two countries’ good and close relations. They also discussed the potential for expanding bilateral cooperation in a range of areas.

Participating in the meeting were the Director of the National Security Council, the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, the Prime Minister’s Military Secretary, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan and the two countries’ ambassadors.

The addition of Azerbaijan’s embassy makes it the first Shiite Muslim country to add a location in Jerusalem. The move is also strategic in other ways as Azerbaijan shares a common border with Iran.

The embassy adds to a small but growing number of embassy locations in Jerusalem. The United States became the first nation to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to the historic Jewish capital city in 2019 after it was inaugurated in 2018.

Guatemala, Honduras and Kosovo have also added an embassy in Jerusalem. The total has now reached five nations with the addition of Azerbaijan.

Honduras became the fourth nation to do so in June 2021. Paraguay briefly opened an embassy in Jerusalem in 2018 but reversed its decision a few months later.

Additional nations have a diplomatic mission in Jerusalem, with many also hosting an embassy in Tel Aviv. Some of the nations with a trade office or similar offices in Jerusalem include Australia, Brazil, Hungary, Italy and Uruguay. A total of 94 embassies in total are located in Israel.