-Opens Consulate in Dubai during official visit to UAE
Middle East Desk
Report
ABU DHABI: Israel’s top diplomat Yair Lapid opened the Jewish state’s first embassy in the Gulf during a trip to the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday after ties were normalized ties last year.The Minister has inaugurated Israel’s embassy in Abu Dhabi and consulate in Dubai.
“The opening of the Israeli Embassy in Abu Dhabi with the Emirati Minister of Culture and Youth,” Lapid tweeted with a photo of himself and UAE minister Noura Al-Kaabi cutting a ribbon in the blue and white of the Israeli flag. 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.
“The inauguration is a symbolic act,” foreign ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat told media, adding, “the embassy and consulate have already been working for four and a half months.” Israel normalised relations with the UAE and Bahrain last August under the government of former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu billed the agreements, dubbed the Abraham Accords, as a personal achievement, and ran an unsuccessful re-election campaign in part on the idea that he was the candidate who could deliver better relations for Israel with its Arab neighbours while maintaining security at home. Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak, a scholar with the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, told media the visit demonstrates the high priority the new Israeli govt places on its Gulf partners.”
