Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to publicize his wartime visit to the United Arab Emirates — a trip that the UAE had reportedly asked to keep secret and which Abu Dhabi has publicly denied took place — was driven by internal political concerns over a planned trip to the Gulf state by former prime minister Naftali Bennett, a report said Sunday.

On Wednesday, Netanyahu said he had secretly visited the UAE during the US-Israeli war with Iran and met with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, adding that this resulted in a “historic breakthrough” in bilateral relations. The UAE denied the claim, however, calling the statement from Netanyahu’s office “entirely unfounded.”

The trip would be the first that Netanyahu has made to the UAE since normalizing relations with Abu Dhabi in the 2020 Abraham Accords, as previous hoped-for visits failed to materialize.

Channel 12 reported Sunday 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 report said........

© The Times of Israel