The United Arab Emirates suspended plans for a summit in Abu Dhabi with Israel, the United States and Arab states in protest of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s attempts to use Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ) of Abu Dhabi as a mainstay in their election campaign, American sources reported on the matter told me.
Why it’s important: This is the first major crisis between the United Arab Emirates and Israel since the announcement of normalization relations last August.
- The emirates are furious with Netanyahu for having wrapped them up in Israeli domestic politics.
Leading the news: Three weeks ago, Netanyahu spoke by phone with MBZ and proposed holding a signing ceremony of the Israel-Sudan diplomatic relations agreement in Abu Dhabi.
- MBZ was open to this, but wanted to incorporate Biden administration. 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, just after the election. But Netanyahu still wanted to visit Abu Dhabi before the election.
- The emirates knew that he was only looking for a photograph, but he did not want to create tensions and they agreed to receive it. His visit last week was postponed due to a crisis between Israel and Jordan.
- Netanyahu continued to push for a new date for the visit while mentioning the UAE in almost all rallies and interviews in the campaign. One of Netanyahu’s main points of discussion was that MBZ promised to invest $ 10 billion in Israel.
Between lines: This was not entirely inaccurate. The problem arose between the two and the UAE announced that they want to invest in Israel, but Netanyahu presented it publicly as if 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 offered last Monday in which he claimed that MBZ “offered” to invest $ 10 billion in Israel, according to U.S. sources familiar with the matter. Netanyahu even claimed that MBZ told him he believed in his economic leadership.
- The emirates decided to retaliate. His first response was a statement by Industry Minister Sultan al-Jaber that investment in Israel was only in the preliminary stage and that any such investment would be economically motivated and not based on politics.
- 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. The Presidential Adviser to the United Arab Emirates, Anwar Gargash, who until several weeks ago was the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, he tweeted that the UAE “will not be part of any internal election in Israel, now or never.”
- The third response was the decision to suspend the planned summit. The Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper first reported on the Emirates decision. Sources familiar with the issue told me that the UAE notified the Biden administration that it was suspending the summit due to Netanyahu’s behavior.
What follows: 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, manages to calm the anger of the Emirates, according to sources familiar with the matter.