Netanyahu said to secretly fly to Abu Dhabi for meeting with Emirati president

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to the United Arab Emirates on Monday and secretly met with Emirati President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, according to Channel 12, which cited two unnamed sources, and Reuters, which cited an unnamed senior Israeli official.

Netanyahu flew on a private plane to Abu Dhabi shortly after noon, landed at 3:10 p.m. and spent four hours in the UAE, according to Channel 12.

The Prime Minister’s Office, the Emirati embassy in Israel and the UAE’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The visit comes amid controversy in Israel over an ostensible warning given by the Emirati leader, known as MBZ, to Netanyahu a week and a half before the Hamas-led invasion and massacre of October 7, 2023.

The Haaretz daily reported this month that bin Zayed had warned the premier that the Palestinian terror group was planning a major operation against Israel. The warning was not passed on to Israeli intelligence agencies or the military, the report said.

Netanyahu, who has denied the report and threatened legal action against the newspaper, is facing a tough reelection campaign. Opposition leaders have accused the prime minister of bearing responsibility for security failures that preceded the October 7 attack.

The UAE has declined to comment on the Haaretz report but has said that the UAE and Israel have maintained “open and direct lines of communication” since establishing diplomatic relations in 2020. A UAE source previously told Reuters that the UAE discusses security matters with countries through the “relevant entities,” but not “at the level of national leaders.”

Earlier this year, the UAE denied that bin Zayed met with Netanyahu after the latter’s office said in May that the premier had “secretly visited” the Gulf country and met with the Emirati president.

A source familiar with the meeting said at the time that Netanyahu and bin Zayed  had met in Al-Ain, an oasis city in Abu Dhabi along the country’s border with Oman, on March 26.

Channel 12 reported at the time that Emirati officials had explicitly asked that the meeting remain confidential and were angered by Netanyahu’s decision to disclose it, sparking a diplomatic crisis between the countries despite warming ties.

The network had reported that Netanyahu’s decision to reveal the earlier visit was driven by internal political concerns after learning that former prime minister Naftali Bennett — a Netanyahu rival in next month’s Knesset election — had been expected to travel to the UAE the following day for meetings with bin Zayed and senior Emirati officials.

Since coming under attack during the Iran war, the UAE has strengthened its relationships with the ‌United ⁠States and Israel, with which it opened ties as a result of the 2020 Abraham Accords. The relationship with Israel gives UAE a lever for regional influence and a unique channel to Washington.