The United Arab Emirates has suspended plans for a summit in Abu Dhabi with Israel, the United States and the Arab states in protest of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s attempts to use Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed (MBZ) as support. In his election campaign, American sources informed me about the problem.
Why does it matter: This is the first major crisis between the United Arab Emirates and Israel since the announcement of normalization relations in August last year.
- The emirates are angry with Netanyahu for confusing them in Israeli domestic politics.
News management: Three weeks ago, Netanyahu spoke on the phone with MBZ and proposed holding a ceremony to sign the Israeli-Sudanese diplomatic relations agreement 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, but stressed that they only wanted it after the Israeli election, sources familiar with the matter said.
- The plan was to hold the summit in early April, immediately after the election. But Netanyahu still wanted to visit Abu Dhabi before the election.
- The Emirati knew they were just looking for a photo, but they did not want to create tensions and agreed to receive it. His visit last week was postponed due to a crisis between Israel and Jordan.
- Netanyahu continued to press for a new visit, mentioning the UAE in almost every campaign and interview rally. One of Netanyahu’s main points of discussion was that MBZ promised to invest $ 10 billion in Israel.
Between the lines: This was not completely inaccurate. The problem arose between the two, and the UAE announced that it wanted to invest in Israel, but Netanyahu presented it publicly as if MBZ’s motive was to give it political support. The Emirati did not appreciate him.
For registration: The last straw was an interview with Netanyahu last Monday, in which he claimed that MBZ “volunteered” to invest 10 billion dollars in Israel, according to American sources familiar with the matter. Netanyahu even claimed that MBZ told him he believed in his economic leadership.
- The emirates decided to fight back. Their first response was a statement by the Minister of Industry, Sultan Jaber, that investment in Israel was only in a very preliminary stage of analysis and that any such investment would be economically motivated and not policy-based.
- The second response was to make it clear to Netanyahu in private and in public that he would not visit the UAE before the election. UAE Presidential Adviser Anwar Gargash, who until a few weeks ago was the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, wrote on Twitter that the UAE “will not be part of any internal electorate in Israel, now or ever.”
- The third response was a decision to suspend the planned summit. The Yediot Ahronot newspaper reported for the first time on the emirates’ decision. Sources familiar with the matter told me that the United Arab Emirates had notified the Biden administration that it was suspending the summit because of Netanyahu’s behavior.
What’s next: The summit will take place at some point, but only after the political situation in Israel is clarified and when Netanyahu, if he remains in office, will be able to calm the anger of the emirates, say sources familiar with the issue.