Israeli PM to attend climate summit
An invitation was presented to the PM by UAE ambassador to Israel Mohamed Al Khaja, who also delivered one to President Isaac Herzog.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was formally invited to visit the United Arab Emirates, after months of delays in securing his first official trip to the Gulf country as premier.
The invitation is not for an Israel-specific trip, however, but rather for Netanyahu to attend the COP28 climate summit in Dubai along with dozens of other foreign leaders. The summit will not take place until the end of November.
An invitation was presented to the PM by UAE ambassador to Israel Mohamed Al Khaja, who also delivered one to President Isaac Herzog.
Netanyahu had sought to make the UAE his first foreign destination upon returning to the premiership.
His office announced a trip to Abu Dhabi days after he began his sixth term as prime minister, but the UAE cancelled amid anger in Abu Dhabi over National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s visit to the flashpoint Temple Mount. The far-right cabinet member toured the site again on Sunday, drawing another condemnation from the UAE, along with censures from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Turkey, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt and the US.
A senior Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel earlier this year that the UAE decision in January to place Netanyahu’s visit on hold also came amid fears that the Israeli premier would use it to publicly threaten Iran while on Emirati soil. Abu Dhabi has been working of late to ease tensions with Tehran, and has sought to balance its nascent relationship with Jerusalem with its complex dealings with the Islamic Republic.
Netanyahu as prime minister made several visits to the UAE in the years leading up to the Abraham Accords normalisation deals Israel signed with the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco in 2020, but none of those were public.
He sought to arrange a formal visit in early 2021, but that effort ran into obstacles too, as the UAE did not want to be seen as interfering in Israeli politics by hosting Netanyahu shortly before a Knesset election. Another delay was caused by Jordan withholding approval of Netanyahu’s flight path over the Hashemite kingdom amid a dispute over the Jordanian crown prince’s planned visit to the Temple Mount.
TIMES OF ISRAEL
comments