US-Israeli delegation lands in Abu Dhabi on historic flight

US National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien delivers a speech, as part of an Israeli-American delegation, in the first-ever commercial flight from Israel to the UAE, on August 31, 2020. (AFP)

US Presidential Adviser Jared Kushner, center, US National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, right, and Head of Israel’s National Security Council Meir Ben-Shabbat board El Al’s flight LY971 to Abu Dhabi. (AFP)

US National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien and US President Trump’s senior adviser Jared Kushner prepare to board a flight with an Israeli delegation to Abu Dhabi. (Reuters)

Above, a screen displaying the flight number of Israeli flag carrier El Al which will carry Israeli and US delegations to Abu Dhabi at Ben Gurion Airport, near Tel Aviv on August 31, 2020. (Reuters)

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31 Aug 2020 08:08:30 GMT9

Arab News

DUBAI: The first Israeli commercial flight carrying US and Israeli officials, scheduled to meet top Emirati counterparts that would formalize relations between Israel and the UAE, has landed in Abu Dhabi.

The delegation is headed by Jared Kushner, Senior Adviser to US President Donald Trump, and includes US National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien and Meir Ben-Shabbat, National Security Adviser and head of the Israeli National Security Council.

The UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash received the US and Israeli delegations.

“While this is a historic flight, we hope that it will start an even more historic journey in the Middle East and beyond,” Kushner said, before boarding the El Al aircraft to Abu Dhabi.

#LIVE: First Israeli-UAE direct flight lands with US and Israeli officials for meetings with Emirati counterpartshttps://t.co/oa1m6Odl6F
— Arab News (@arabnews) August 31, 2020

Saudi Arabia allowed the “historic” flight to cross its airspace, Kushner said at Abu Dhabi shortly after the flight landed. “This is the first time this has ever happened. I would like to thank the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for making that possible.”

The landmark direct flight by Israel’s national carrier, numbered LY971 in a nod to the UAE’s international dialing code, is due to return on Tuesday with the number 972, matching Israel’s dialing code.

The agreement to normalize ties was announced by Trump on Aug. 13, making the UAE the first Gulf country and only the third Arab nation to establish relations with Israel.

Unlike Egypt, which made peace with its former battlefield enemy in 1979, and Jordan, which followed in 1994, the UAE has never fought a war with Israel.

Israeli National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat, who was also on the flight to the UAE, said “our goal is to achieve a joint working plan to advance relations in a very broad range of areas.

“This morning, the traditional blessing ‘go in peace’ receives special meaning for us,” he was quoted as saying in an English-language government statement.

The talks in Abu Dhabi aim to boost cooperation between the two regional economic powerhouses in areas including aviation, tourism, trade, health, energy and security.

An Israeli government statement said there would be “working meetings of joint teams on a range of issues ahead of the signing of cooperation agreements in the civil and economic spheres.”

The visit will also include a meeting between Kushner, Ben-Shabbat and UAE National Security Adviser Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed, it said.

Israel’s health ministry had late Sunday updated its list of “green countries” with low coronavirus infection rates to include the UAE and eight other countries.

The change meant the Israeli officials and journalists traveling to Abu Dhabi would be exempted from a 14-day quarantine upon return.

Since the agreement between the UAE and Israel was unveiled, there have been phone calls between their ministers, and on Saturday the Emirates in a new milestone repealed a 1972 law boycotting Israel.

“It will be permissible to enter, exchange or possess Israeli goods and products of all kinds in the UAE and trade in them,” read a decree issued by UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking alongside Kushner in Jerusalem on Sunday, praised “the swift pace of normalization” between his country and the UAE.

Noting the UAE’s move from Saturday, Netanyahu said it “opens the door” for “unbridled trade, tourism, investments, exchanges between the Middle East’s two most advanced economies.”

“You will see how the sparks fly on this. It’s already happening,” he said, predicting that “today’s breakthroughs will become tomorrow’s norms. It will pave the way for other countries to normalize their ties with Israel.”

“There are many more unpublicized meetings with Arab and Muslim leaders to normalize relations with the state of Israel,” Netanyahu said without naming any countries.

As part of the normalization agreement, Israel agreed to suspend its planned annexations in the occupied West Bank, although Netanyahu quickly insisted the plans remained on the table in the long run.

The Palestinians dubbed the UAE’s agreement with Israel a “stab in the back” as it opens parts of the Arab world to the Jewish state while their own conflict remains unresolved.

Saudi Arabia, in keeping with decades of policy by most Arab states, says it will not follow the UAE’s example until Israel has signed a peace deal with the Palestinians establishing an independent Palestinian state.

#UAEIsrael: The #UAE is set to welcome a US-Israeli delegation led by @jaredkushner today, who are arriving on a landmark commercial flight between the Emirates and #Israel https://t.co/Bx1auFQDjx
— Arab News (@arabnews) August 31, 2020