Israeli dronemaker allowed to renew sales to Azeris

The Defense Ministry on Monday allowed an aircraft manufacturer suspected of testing one of its “suicide drones” against the Armenian military on behalf of Azerbaijan in 2017, in violation of Israeli law, to again sell the unmanned aerial vehicles to the Azeris.

At the same time, the export licenses of three senior officials from the defense contractor Aeronautics Ltd. — CEO Amos Matan, deputy CEO Meir Rizmovitch and a third, unnamed, employee — were to be suspended by the Defense Ministry beginning in April, the company said.

The announcement was made after the Defense Ministry said last week that it had decided to revoke the export licenses of the three senior officials.

Many details of the case were suppressed under a court-issued gag order, which remained in place as of Monday.

The Defense Ministry’s decision came three weeks after the Rafael defense contractor agreed to purchase Aeronautics for NIS 850 million ($231.7 million).