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World

Netanyahu makes unannounced visit to UAE to meet Sheikh Mohamed amid Oct 7 warning fallout

Benjamin Netanyahu made an unannounced one-day visit to Abu Dhabi on Sunday to meet UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, a senior Israeli official told Reuters — the visit coming weeks after reports the Emirati leader warned Netanyahu before the October 7 attacks.

By Sarah Whitfield · · 2 min read

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Abu Dhabi on Sunday and met UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a senior Israeli official told Reuters, in an unannounced trip that comes amid heightened regional tensions and renewed scrutiny of ties between the two countries.

Israeli television channels 12 and KAN, along with Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post, reported that Netanyahu made a one-day visit to the UAE. Channel 12 said he travelled on a private plane and spent the day in Abu Dhabi. Neither Netanyahu’s office nor the UAE foreign ministry immediately commented on the reports.

The meeting comes weeks after Haaretz reported that Sheikh Mohamed had warned Netanyahu about a planned major Hamas operation around a week and a half before the October 7, 2023 attack. Haaretz reported that the warning was not passed to Israeli intelligence agencies or the military. Netanyahu has denied the report and threatened legal action against Haaretz, while opposition leaders have accused him of responsibility for security failures that preceded the attack.

The UAE has not commented directly on the reported warning but has previously said its relationship with Israel includes “open and direct lines of communication”.

It is not the leaders’ first secret meeting this year: a source familiar with the matter told Reuters that the two met in the oasis city of Al Ain on March 26, after Netanyahu’s office said in May that the prime minister had “secretly visited” the UAE. Israel and the UAE formally established diplomatic relations in 2020 as part of the US-negotiated Abraham Accords.

Sources

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