Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly met with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, both governments confirmed late Monday. An Emirati statement said the two sides discussed bilateral relations and ways to strengthen and develop them. Netanyahu's office said the visit focused on strengthening ties and regional challenges.
However, the trip is mired in controversy. Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 reported Monday that Netanyahu's purpose was to request that Sheikh Mohamed deny having warned him about an impending Hamas attack in 2023. Netanyahu's office denied making any such request, just as it had denied the original report. The report claimed the UAE president had warned Netanyahu about an imminent threat from Hamas ahead of the deadly October 7, 2023, attack, but the premier allegedly failed to pass it on to security services.
Earlier Monday, before the trip was confirmed, Israel's Shin Bet domestic security service filed a complaint against Channel 12, accusing it of violating censorship rules by reporting the visit before the prime minister returned to Israel. A statement from Netanyahu's office said the report was made public while the premier's plane was still outside Israeli airspace, thereby endangering the lives of the prime minister, his wife, and the delegation, which included the head of the Mossad spy agency and other top security officials.
Sheikh Mohamed's hosting of Netanyahu was a significant development at a time when the Israeli leader is seen by many across the Middle East as the chief propagator of the war in Gaza, which has seen over 70,000 Palestinians killed—many of them civilians. It is also the first time the UAE has officially acknowledged a meeting between the two leaders after denying reports of a previous Netanyahu trip in May.
The UAE is one of only a handful of Arab nations maintaining official diplomatic ties with Israel after signing the Abraham Accords during US President Donald Trump's first term in 2020. The UAE condemned the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, as a 'serious and grave escalation' and said it was 'appalled' by reports of Israeli citizens being taken hostage. But relations have also been strained by Israel's subsequent war in Gaza, with the UAE denouncing 'ongoing Israeli violations' in the Palestinian enclave. Nevertheless, Israel reportedly deployed Iron Dome air defense systems, together with personnel to operate them, to the UAE during the war against Iran, as the Gulf state faced retaliatory attacks from Tehran.
Source: www.dw.com