UAE president discussed bilateral relations with Israel's Netanyahu, state news agency says

UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan discussed bilateral relations during a visit on Sunday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the Gulf country, the Emirati state news agency WAM reported on Monday.

The report by WAM was the first UAE confirmation of Netanyahu’s visit.

The Israeli prime minister’s office said on Monday that Netanyahu visited at the invitation of the UAE president. It said the visit “focused on strengthening relations between the two countries and on regional challenges”.

Three senior Israeli officials said the meeting on Sunday lasted six hours and focused on Iran.

Earlier this year, the UAE denied that Sheikh Mohamed met with Netanyahu after the Israeli prime minister’s office said in May that Netanyahu had “secretly visited” the Gulf country and met with the president.

A source familiar with the meeting said at the time that Netanyahu and Sheikh Mohamed met in Al-Ain, an oasis city in Abu Dhabi along the country’s border with Oman, on March 26.

The visit came weeks after a bombshell Israeli media report that the Emirati president had warned Netanyahu ahead of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which the Israeli premier did not pass on to the security services. Netanyahu has denied the story.

According to Israeli media, Netanyahu flew to the UAE on Sunday to ask Sheikh Mohamed to deny having given him that warning in 2023.

Earlier on Monday, before Netanyahu’s office formally confirmed the destination, Israel’s domestic security service filed a complaint against a TV channel that reported the visit.

“This evening 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,” read a statement from Netanyahu’s office, which oversees the security agency.

The publication of his visit “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 top security officials, the PM’s office said in its statement.

The visit was made public when the premier’s plane was still outside Israeli airspace, it noted.

Mossad, which also operates under the Prime Minister’s office, issued a similar condemnation, according to the statement.

Since coming under attack during the Iran war, the UAE has strengthened its relationships with the United States and Israel, with which it opened ties as a result of the 2020 Abraham Accords. The relationship with Israel gives the UAE a lever for regional influence and a unique channel to Washington.