The President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a conversation on Sunday where they discussed bilateral relations and ways to strengthen them.
The Emirates state news agency confirmed Netanyahu's visit to Abu Dhabi, making this the first official announcement from the Emirati side about the Israeli prime minister's trip.
"The two sides discussed bilateral relations between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, as well as ways to strengthen and develop them," the state agency said in a statement, confirming previous Israeli media reports.
The visit was accompanied by controversy in Israel, as Netanyahu's trip to the Emirates was not made public in advance. The Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service, announced that it had filed a complaint against Channel 12 after the latter broadcast news about the visit.
"Tonight, the Shin Bet filed an official complaint with the head of military censorship, demanding that Channel 12 be prosecuted for serious violations of military censorship," the prime minister's office said.
According to Netanyahu's office, the release of information about the visit could have posed a security risk to the prime minister, his wife and members of the delegation, including the head of Mossad, as the news was made public while the prime minister's plane was outside Israeli airspace.
The visit to Abu Dhabi also comes at a sensitive political moment. In recent days, the Haaretz newspaper reported that the United Arab Emirates had warned Netanyahu, shortly before the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, that the group was preparing an operation against Israel.
Netanyahu has denied receiving such a warning. According to Israeli media reports, one of the purposes of the visit to the Emirates was to demand that President Mohamed bin Zayed publicly deny that he had given such a warning to the Israeli prime minister in 2023.
