The United Arab Emirates has suspended plans for a summit in Abu Dhabi with Israel, the US and the Arab states in protest of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s efforts to get Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed (MBZ) as a prop in his to use election campaign. the case told me.
Why it matters: This is the first major crisis between the UAE and Israel since the announcement of normalization relations in August last year.
- The Emirates are furious about Netanyahu for entangling them in domestic Israeli politics.
Send the news: Three weeks ago, Netanyahu spoke by telephone with MBZ and proposed to hold a signing ceremony for the diplomatic relations between Israel and Sudan in Abu Dhabi.
- MBZ was open to this, but wanted to bring the Biden administration on board. U.S. officials liked the idea and agreed to send a senior official to attend.
- The plan was to hold the summit in early April, directly after the election. But Netanyahu still wanted to visit Abu Dhabi before the election.
- The Emirates knew he was just looking for a photo but did not want to create tension and agreed to receive him. His visit last week was postponed due to a crisis between Israel and Jordan.
- Netanyahu continued to insist on a new date for the visit, mentioning the UAE in almost every campaign series and interview. One of Netanyahu’s main points of discussion was that MBZ promised him to invest $ 10 billion in Israel.
Between the lines: It was not entirely inaccurate. The issue did arise between the two and the UAE did announce that it did want to invest in Israel, but Netanyahu publicly suggested that MBZ’s motive was to give him political support. The Emirates did not appreciate it.
For the record: The latest straw was an interview Netanyahu gave last Monday in which he claimed that MBZ was “voluntary” to invest $ 10 billion in Israel, according to US sources familiar with the matter. Netanyahu even claims that MBZ told him that he believes in his economic leadership.
- The Emirates decided to take revenge. Their first reaction was a statement by the Minister of Industry, Sultan Jaber, that the investment in Israel was only in a very preliminary stage of consideration, and that such investment would be economically motivated and not based on politics.
- The second response was to make it clear to Netanyahu privately and publicly that he would not be visiting the UAE before the election. The UAE’s presidential adviser, Anwar Gargash, who until a few weeks ago was foreign minister, tweeted that the UAE ‘will not be a part of any internal election in Israel, now or ever.’
- The third response was a decision to suspend the planned summit. The newspaper Yediot Ahronot first reported on the Emirati decision. Sources familiar with the matter have told me that the UAE has notified Biden’s government that it is suspending the summit due to Netanyahu’s behavior.
What’s next: The summit will take place at some point, but only after the political situation in Israel has been clarified, and when Netanyahu succeeds in calming the anger of Emirates, say sources familiar with the issue.