Israel’s Prime Minister (PM) Benjamin Netanyahu will fly Thursday to Abu Dhabi and meet with Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, an official source confirmed Wednesday, according to Ynet.
PM's previous attempts to visit the Gulf state had to be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, with sources saying that Abu Dhabi was worried about the visit's proximity to the March 23 elections
With less than 12 days until the elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will pay his first visit to the United Arab Emirates on Thursday, an official source confirmed Wednesday.
Netanyahu is said to have updated Defense Minister Benny Gantz on the visit although there was no immediate confirmation of the trip from the Prime Minister's office or the UAE.
According to various reports, Netanyahu is set to meet Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan during the visit.
It was not immediately clear if he will also travel to Bahrain, as he had planned to do during the previously scheduled trip to the Gulf in February.
Israel opened an embassy in the United Arab Emirates on January 21, its foreign ministry said, in a historic move four months after the Jewish state and the Gulf country normalized ties.
The Israeli embassy in Abu Dhabi has officially been opened on that day, with the arrival of the mission head Eitan Naeh," the ministry said in a statement.
"The Israeli embassy in the United Arab Emirates will advance relations between the countries on all levels."
The UAE, along with Bahrain, signed a US-brokered deal in September to normalize relations with the Jewish state.
The agreements, known as the "Abraham Accords", shattered a longstanding Arab consensus that there should be no normalization with Israel until it reaches a comprehensive peace deal with the Palestinians.
The Israeli embassy in Abu Dhabi will be operating from "temporary offices" until locating a permanent facility, the foreign ministry statement said.
The mission will "expand the ties with the Emirati government, financial bodies, and the private sector, universities, the media and more," it added.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi welcomed the move, saying the embassy would "enable the expansion of bilateral relations between Israel and the Emirates for a swift and maximal implementation of the potential in these ties."
The foreign ministry announcement came shortly after the UAE said its cabinet had approved the establishment of an embassy in Israel, also a first.
Ashkenazi welcomed the UAE decision, which he said: "will advance the warm ties between the states and peoples.”
Earlier in January, Sudan also signed the Abraham Accords, becoming the third Arab country to do so and the fourth to normalize diplomatic relations with the Jewish state in as many months.
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