Bin Zayed arrives in 'Tel Aviv' on an official visit to 'Israel'

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
14 Sep 2022 20:59

And the "normalizing" visits between the UAE and "Israel" continue.

Israeli PM in the UAE on an official visit to Dubai (2021)

The Emirati Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan arrived in "Tel Aviv" today on an official visit to "Israel".

Bin Zayed was accompanied by a high-level official and economic delegation. The visit, which will last for several days, coincides with the two-year anniversary of the normalization agreement between the UAE and "Israel".

During his meeting with senior Israeli officials, Bin Zayed will discuss a number of files of common interest related to Israeli-Emirati relations and prospects for cooperation and partnership between the two sides.

In June, the Israeli occupation's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett landed in the United Arab Emirates for talks with President Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, following a free trade deal signed the month before.

Bennett's second visit to the UAE since the two normalized relations in a US-brokered 2020 deal also came after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) adopted a resolution against Iran's nuclear activity. The Israeli PM's office said the "snap visit" touched on "various regional issues."

The UAE was the first Gulf country to normalize ties with the Israeli occupation.

A timeline of "normalized" visits

The resident of the Israeli occupation, Isaac Herzog, visited the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi, on January 30, 2022, on a flight that crossed Saudi airspace before arriving in the Emirates.

Prior to that, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan invited the former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on October 18 to visit the UAE.

These visits come amid the deepening of ties between the Israeli occupation and several normalizing states, including Saudi Arabia, which analysts expect will soon normalize ties with "Israel".

As an extension of the normalization agreements, the US administration has been mediating negotiations since May to cede the very strategic islands of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia, which claimed ownership of them before 1950, the year when Riyadh gave Cairo authority over them.

If the negotiations between the US, "Israel", Saudi Arabia, and Egypt are successful, this will pave the way for the normalization of relations between "Israel" and Saudi Arabia.

Five Israeli sources told Axios that a predeterminant for the coming normalization process is the transfer of authority of the two islands from Egypt to Saudi Arabia. Although the islands have been demilitarized as per the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli normalization agreement, they still hold significant strategic importance, as they engulf the passage into the Red Sea, up to "Eilat"; "Israel's" bound-to-boom economic and trade hub, in addition to the port of Aqaba in Jordan.