A US-Israeli delegation, including White House adviser Jared Kushner, left Tel Aviv for Abu Dhabi on Monday on the first-ever historic direct trade flight to normalize relations between the Jewish state and the United Arab Emirates.
The word "peace" was written’ in
Arabic, English and Hebrew on the cockpit of the Israeli national carrier EL'Al,
which took off at 11:20 a.m. (0820 GMT) and is expected to arrive in the
evening. Will land in the UAE.
"While this is a historic flight, we
hope it will embark on another historic journey to the Middle East and beyond,"
said Kushner, son-in-law of President Donald Trump and a key architect of his
Middle East policy. , Said. Before boarding
"There is no need to predict the
future. This is a very hopeful time."
Flight number LL-971 refers to the UAE's
international dialing code, and the return flight departing from Abu Dhabi on
Tuesday morning is LL-972, which is similar to Israel's dialing code.
Trump announced the Israel-UAE agreement
to normalize relations on August 13, making the UAE the first Gulf state and
the third Arab nation to establish relations with Israel.
Unlike Egypt, which fought its former
battlefield enemy in 1979 and Jordan in 1994, the UAE has never fought a war
with Israel.
According to the expert website Flight
Reader 24, the unprecedented flight also passed through Saudi airspace, and it
is the strongest sign so far that Israel is going to melt with the major Arab
powers.
Israeli National Security Adviser Mir Ben
Shabbat, who was also on a flight to the United Arab Emirates, said:
"This morning, the traditional
blessing 'go in peace' has special meaning for us," it said in an official
English-language statement.
- 'Sparks fly' -
The talks in Abu Dhabi are aimed’ at
boosting cooperation between the two regional economic power plants in areas
including Huawei, tourism, trade, health, energy and security.
A statement from the Israeli government
said, "There will be working meetings of joint teams on a number of issues
before the signing of agreements on cooperation in the civil and economic
spheres."
The visit will also include a tripartite
meeting between Kushner, Ben Shabbat and Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed, the UAE's
national security adviser, the statement said.
The Israeli Ministry of Health updated its
list of "green countries" late Sunday to include the UAE and eight
other countries with low coronavirus infection rates.
The change meant that Israeli officials
and journalists traveling to Abu Dhabi would be exempted’ from a 14-day
repatriation period.
Since the agreement between the UAE and
Israel was unveiled, there have been phone calls between their ministers since
then, and on Saturday, the UAE repealed the 1972 boycott of Israel in a new
milestone. ۔
Read a decree issued by the President of
the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, "It will be
permissible to enter exchange or trade in all kinds of Israeli goods and
products in the United Arab Emirates."
Speaking to Kushner in Jerusalem on
Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the "normal
pace" between his country and the United Arab Emirates.
Noting the UAE's move this week, Netanyahu
said it had "opened the door" to unbridled trade, tourism,
investment, exchanges between the two most advanced economies in the Middle
East.
"You'll see how the sparks fly. It's
already happened," he predicted, adding, "Today’s successes will
become tomorrow's routine." It will pave the way for other countries to
normalize their relations with Israel. "
"There are even more
non-controversial meetings with Arab and Muslim leaders to normalize relations
with the state of Israel," Netanyahu said without naming any country.
As part of the normalization agreement,
Israel agreed to suspend its plans in the occupied West Bank, although
Netanyahu soon insisted that the plans remain on its table for a long time.
The Palestinians have called the UAE's
agreement with Israel a "stab in the back" because it has opened up
parts of the Arab world to the Jewish state while not resolving their own
disputes.
Given the decades-long policy of most Arab
states, Saudi Arabia says it will not follow the example of the United Arab
Emirates until Israel signs an agreement with the Palestinians to establish an
independent Palestinian state. Will
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