Naftali Bennett to visit United Arab Emirates in first for Israeli prime minister

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett traveled to the United Arab Emirates connected Sunday, his bureau said, the archetypal sojourn by an Israeli person to the Gulf state. The countries established diplomatic relations past year.

Bennett said helium would conscionable Monday with Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the country’s de facto leader, 16 months aft they signed the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords. A cardinal dollars successful task deals person been inked betwixt investors successful some nations; Dubai has go a favourite destination for Israeli tourists and the governments person opened embassies successful Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi.

The leaders volition “discuss deepening the ties betwixt Israel and the UAE, particularly the economical and determination issues that volition lend to prosperity, payment and strengthening the stableness betwixt the 2 countries,” Bennett’s bureau said. UAE officials did not instantly respond to requests for comment.

Bennett and bin Zayed volition besides face emerging disagreements implicit planetary efforts to dilatory the atomic capableness of Iran. While a mistrust of Iran’s determination ambitions was 1 of the shared concerns that led the countries to participate the agreement, the UAE has precocious signaled a willingness to easiness tensions with Tehran. A apical Emirati information authoritative met this period with Iran’s caller hard enactment president successful Iran, the highest-level speech betwixt the 2 governments successful respective years.

Israel, meanwhile, has objected to Biden medication efforts to broker a caller multinational effort to rein successful Iran’s atomic probe operations. Israel cheered successful 2018 erstwhile then-president Donald Trump announced his determination to propulsion retired of the erstwhile deal, successful which Iran agreed to restrictions connected its atomic activities successful speech for sanctions relief. Bennett’s authorities has tried to marshal diplomatic absorption to a caller deal; officials person warned Washington that they don’t regularisation retired subject strikes against Iranian facilities it considers threats.

Iran insists that its atomic research, including a rapidly increasing capableness for enriching uranium, is meant for peaceful purposes.

The historical detente betwixt Israel and respective of its Arab neighbors, including Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco, was brokered mostly by 2 leaders who person since fallen from office: Trump and erstwhile Israeli premier curate Benjamin Netanyahu. But their successors person pushed to turn the fledgling ties.

“The imaginable inherent successful the concern betwixt Israel and the Emirates is enormous,” Bennett tweeted earlier his departure Sunday.

Netanyahu intended to beryllium the archetypal Israeli premier curate to sojourn the UAE, but planned trips were disrupted by pandemic concerns and a diplomatic quality that concisely made it intolerable to transverse Jordanian airspace.

The erstwhile leader, who was ousted successful June aft failing to unafraid a parliamentary bulk successful 4 consecutive elections, forbade different elder officials from visiting Abu Dhabi earlier helium did, according to Israeli media reports.

Netanyahu, who is being prosecuted connected charges of bribery, fraud and maltreatment of power, made nary nationalist remark astir Bennett’s UAE trip. But the longtime person has lamented the nonaccomplishment of different trappings of office. On Sunday, a authorities committee denied his petition to widen information extortion for his woman and big sons, which is acceptable to expire Monday. As a erstwhile premier minister, Netanyahu himself volition inactive person a protective detail.

The thaw that Netanyahu helped negociate with the UAE followed decades successful which the 2 countries maintained a clandestine relationship. The governments had softly shared quality accusation astir the volatile regions since the 1970s, adjacent arsenic the Gulf authorities was portion of a astir unified Arab bloc that refused to normalize relations with Israel until it pulled retired of the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The Emiratis ignored that information erstwhile it entered the accords successful 2021, infuriating Palestinian leaders. Since then, commercialized and exertion contacts betwixt the 2 countries person boomed. Investments betwixt Israel and UAE person topped a cardinal dollars, according to an authoritative successful Jerusalem, and Israel’s Bureau of Statistics reports that commercialized betwixt each the Abraham Accord countries has surged by much than 200 percent.

Shira Rubin contributed to this report. Kareem Fahim contributed from Istanbul.