Israel, UAE hope to start direct flights within weeks

Israel and the United Arab Emirates hope to establish direct flights between the countries within weeks, Foreign Ministry Director-General Alon Ushpiz says, adding that both sides also want to open mutual embassies “quickly.”

Asked in an interview with Army Radio whether direct flights would happen within several seeks, Ushpiz says: “I can definitely tell you that that is the goal. We need to get this over with quickly because both sides want it, but also because this should be a peace deal whose dividends should be felt in the people’s daily lives, no matter where they live.”

He says that work had been done to agree on direct flights between Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi — and possibly also Dubai — and enabling Israelis to get visas for both tourism and business.

Ushpiz says the mutual opening of embassies has been the “top priority” for both sides in the talks. He declines to provide an estimated timeframe for that, but says the UAE’s foreign minister and Foreign Ministry employees all expressed hope the opening of embassies would happen “quickly.”