Historic flight takes Israeli and US officials to UAE
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Abu Dhabi — Top aides to US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on a historic flight from Tel Aviv on Monday, to finalise a pact marking open relations between the Gulf power and Israel.
Even before discussions start in Abu Dhabi, the delegates made aviation history when the Israeli commercial airliner flew over Saudi territory on the direct flight from Tel Aviv to the UAE capital.
“That’s what peace for peace looks like,” Netanyahu tweeted, describing a deal for formal ties with an Arab state that does not entail handover of land that Israel captured in a 1967 war.
Announced on August 13, the normalisation deal is the first such accommodation between an Arab country and Israel in more than 20 years and was catalysed largely by shared fears of Iran.
Palestinians were dismayed by the UAE's move, worried that it would weaken a long-standing pan-Arab position that called for Israeli withdrawal from occupied territory — and acceptance of Palestinian statehood — in return for normal relations with Arab countries.
Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and national security adviser Robert O’Brien head the US delegation. The Israeli team is led by O’Brien's counterpart, Meir Ben-Shabbat. Officials will explore bilateral co-operation in areas such as commerce and tourism, and Israeli defence envoys are due to visit the UAE separately.
“I prayed yesterday at the [Western] Wall that Muslims and Arabs throughout the world will be watching this flight, recognising that we are all children of God, and that the future does not have to be predetermined by the past,” Kushner told reporters on the tarmac at Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion airport.
Arabic greeting
Israeli officials hope the two-day trip will produce a date for a Washington signing ceremony, perhaps as early as September, between Netanyahu and Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.
That could give Trump a foreign policy boost ahead of his re-election bid in November.
The Trump administration has tried to coax other Sunni Arab countries concerned about Iran to engage with Israel. The most powerful of those, Saudi Arabia, while opening its airspace to the El Al flight, has signalled it is not ready.
Hours before the plane landed three people were killed and several others were injured in two separate explosions in Abu Dhabi and UAE tourism hub Dubai, police and local ...
Even before discussions start in Abu Dhabi, the delegates made aviation history when the Israeli commercial airliner flew over Saudi territory on the direct flight from Tel Aviv to the UAE capital.
“That’s what peace for peace looks like,” Netanyahu tweeted, describing a deal for formal ties with an Arab state that does not entail handover of land that Israel captured in a 1967 war.
Announced on August 13, the normalisation deal is the first such accommodation between an Arab country and Israel in more than 20 years and was catalysed largely by shared fears of Iran.
Palestinians were dismayed by the UAE's move, worried that it would weaken a long-standing pan-Arab position that called for Israeli withdrawal from occupied territory — and acceptance of Palestinian statehood — in return for normal relations with Arab countries.
Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and national security adviser Robert O’Brien head the US delegation. The Israeli team is led by O’Brien's counterpart, Meir Ben-Shabbat. Officials will explore bilateral co-operation in areas such as commerce and tourism, and Israeli defence envoys are due to visit the UAE separately.
“I prayed yesterday at the [Western] Wall that Muslims and Arabs throughout the world will be watching this flight, recognising that we are all children of God, and that the future does not have to be predetermined by the past,” Kushner told reporters on the tarmac at Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion airport.
Arabic greeting
Israeli officials hope the two-day trip will produce a date for a Washington signing ceremony, perhaps as early as September, between Netanyahu and Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.
That could give Trump a foreign policy boost ahead of his re-election bid in November.
The Trump administration has tried to coax other Sunni Arab countries concerned about Iran to engage with Israel. The most powerful of those, Saudi Arabia, while opening its airspace to the El Al flight, has signalled it is not ready.
Hours before the plane landed three people were killed and several others were injured in two separate explosions in Abu Dhabi and UAE tourism hub Dubai, police and local ...