By Al Ahed Staff, Agencies
The “Israeli” entity’s top diplomat Yair Lapid arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday for the first ever official visit by an “Israeli” minister, after the two nations normalized ties in September.
Lapid landed at Abu Dhabi airport after earlier tweeting a picture of himself from inside a plane.
“Israeli” ministers have previously visited the UAE, but newly appointed Lapid is the most senior "Israeli" to make the trip, and the first to travel on an official mission.
Since the normalization accord with the UAE was announced in August 2020, the entity has signed a raft of deals with the UAE, ranging from tourism to aviation and financial services.
During his visit, Lapid will inaugurate the “Israeli” embassy in Abu Dhabi, as well as the consulate general of the “Israeli” entity in Dubai.
"The ‘Israeli’ delegation will land late morning at Abu Dhabi, and will be received by the minister of economic affairs at the foreign ministry," the entity’s foreign ministry had said in a statement.
The trip comes nearly a year after the nations moved to normalize ties, and after months of planned visits by “Israeli” officials were stymied by issues including the COVID pandemic and diplomatic scuffles.
In March, a planned official visit by former “Israeli” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was cancelled due to a "dispute" with Jordan over the use of its airspace, according to “Israeli” officials.
Netanyahu, replaced as prime minister by Naftali Bennett in a coalition government cobbled together by Lapid, had already postponed a February visit to the UAE and Bahrain over coronavirus travel restrictions.
The normalization accords between the “Israeli” entity and the UAE, as well as Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan, have been condemned by the Palestinians as they break with years of Arab League policy which has held that there should be no relations with “Israel” until it makes “peace” with the Palestinians.
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