Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will make a visit to Abu Dhabi on Thursday, his first to the country after signing the Abraham Accords with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in September.
Various sources report that Netanyahu will meet with UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan at the airport in the morning hours.
Netanyahu has previously planned to visit the Gulf state several times but was forces to cancel his plans for various reasons.
Mohamed Mahmoud Al Khaja, the UAE’s first ambassador to Israel, arrived in the country earlier this month.
The Israeli embassy in Abu Dhabi officially opened on January 25 with the arrival of the Head of Mission Eitan Na’eh, Israel’s former envoy to Turkey.
Netanyahu is slated to be back in Israel by the evening to meet with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš who will arrive in the country on Thursday to meet with the country’s leadership and learn about its success in contending with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The UAE and Bahrain signed a historic peace agreement with Israel at the White House on September 15, the first agreement to be signed between Israel and an Arab country in 25 years.
The UAE was the first major Arab state to recognize Israel since the Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty was signed in October 1994.
Announced on August 13, the Abraham Accords is the first between a Gulf state and Israel and is expected to lead to similar agreements with other Arab countries, possibly Oman or Saudi Arabia.
Israel and Sudan announced the normalization of ties in October 2020. Morocco joined the Abraham Accords in December.
