Israeli minister visits UAE ahead of Netanyahu trip: Reports

Strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer visited on Sunday forward of a potential journey to Abu Dhabi by the PM, Israeli media report.

Israel's strategic affairs minister, Ron Dermer, beforehand served as ambassador to the US [File: Mike Segar/Reuters]

An Israeli minister has made a secret journey to the United Arab Emirates forward of a potential go to to the Gulf state by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli media reviews say.

Ron Dermer, Israel’s strategic affairs minister, travelled on Sunday to Abu Dhabi, the place he met senior officers, the Israeli information web site Walla reported on Monday.

Alongside Dermer was Nationwide Safety Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi.

The journey could be the primary by an Israeli minister to the UAE because the new Israeli authorities got here into energy on the finish of December.

Netanyahu had been anticipated to make a go to to the UAE shortly after he returned to the premiership, however the entrance of his provocative nationwide safety minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, to Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in January led to the cancellation of the UAE journey, in line with Israeli media retailers.

The UAE issued a public condemnation of Ben-Gvir’s actions on the time.

On his journey to the UAE, Dermer tried to allay a few of its authorities’s issues relating to Ben-Gvir and different far-right members of the Israeli authorities, in line with the reviews.

Israel and the UAE normalised ties in 2020 beneath the United States-brokered Abraham Accords and have since strengthened their relations, together with by signing a free commerce settlement in Could.

Dermer served as Israel’s ambassador to the US when the accords have been signed.

Naftali Bennett, a right-wing politician who succeeded Netanyahu as prime minister in 2021, turned the first Israeli chief to make a state go to to the UAE in December of the identical yr earlier than visiting once more for talks in June final yr.

The UAE lies on the centre of Israel’s technique of normalising ties with Arab governments regardless of its continued occupation of Palestinian territory and near-daily raids within the occupied West Financial institution, which have already killed 17 Palestinians this month.