United Arab Emirates (UAE) President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan invited Israeli Prime Minister (PM) Benjamin Netanyahu to the Gulf country, where the two discussed bilateral relations and regional challenges, the Israeli prime minister’s office has said.
Netanyahu visited the UAE on Sunday at Sheikh Mohamed’s invitation, with his office saying that the meeting focused on strengthening relations between the two countries and discussing regional challenges.
According to the reports, three senior Israeli officials said that the six-hour meeting focused on Iran.
Emirati state news agency WAM reported the visit on Monday, marking the first confirmation from the UAE that Netanyahu had travelled to the country. Netanyahu’s office had not disclosed the destination before Monday.
Earlier on Monday, Israel’s domestic security service filed a complaint against Israel’s Channel 12 after the TV channel reported the visit before Netanyahu’s office formally confirmed it.
“Tonight the Shin Bet filed a complaint with the Chief Military Censor, demanding that Channel 12 be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law following a severe censorship violation,” Netanyahu’s office said.
The office stated that the publication of the visit while Netanyahu’s plane was still outside Israeli airspace “endangered the lives of the prime minister and his wife, as well as the delegation”, which included the head of the Mossad spy agency and other senior security officials.
The visit follows an earlier dispute over Netanyahu’s reported meeting with Sheikh Mohamed. In May, Netanyahu’s office said that the Israeli prime minister had “secretly visited” the UAE and met its president, but the UAE denied that the two had met.
The latest visit also follows an Israeli media report alleging that Sheikh Mohamed had warned Netanyahu before Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, but Netanyahu did not pass the warning to Israel’s security services. Netanyahu has denied the report.
Israeli media reported that Netanyahu travelled to the UAE on Sunday to ask Sheikh Mohamed to deny giving him the warning in 2023.
The UAE established relations with Israel under the 2020 Abraham Accords. Since coming under attack during the Iran war, the UAE has strengthened its relationships with the United States (US) and Israel, with its ties to Israel providing a channel to Washington and a means of regional influence.
