An Unannounced Meeting in the Emirati Capital
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel traveled to Abu Dhabi on Sunday and held talks with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, a senior Israeli official told Reuters. The visit was not disclosed beforehand. Netanyahu's office and the UAE foreign ministry both stayed silent when asked for comment, leaving the official's account as the only confirmation of the meeting.[S1]
The encounter lands in the middle of a difficult reelection campaign for Netanyahu, who has rejected the Haaretz account and threatened to take legal action against the newspaper. Opposition figures have said the prime minister carries responsibility for the security breakdowns that came before the Hamas attack on October 7.[S2]
The Warning Haaretz Reported
The unannounced trip follows a report this month in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that Sheikh Mohamed had cautioned Netanyahu about a major Hamas operation roughly a week and a half before October 7, 2023. According to that report, the warning was never handed to Israeli intelligence agencies or to the military.[S1]
The UAE has not commented on the Haaretz report, but it has said that since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 2020, it and Israel have kept open and direct lines of communication. A UAE source had earlier told Reuters that the country handles security matters with other states through the relevant entities rather than at the level of national leaders.[S2]
A Relationship Built Since the Abraham Accords
The Emirati government had previously pushed back on reports of such a meeting. In May, Netanyahu's office stated that the Israeli leader had made a covert trip to the UAE and held talks with the Emirati president. According to a person with knowledge of the encounter, the two met on March 26 in Al-Ain, an oasis city in Abu Dhabi close to the Omani border.[S2]
Having come under attack during the Iran war, the UAE has deepened its relationships with the United States and Israel, with which it opened ties through the 2020 Abraham Accords. The link to Israel gives the UAE both a lever for regional influence and a distinctive channel to Washington.[S2]
