BICOM

Israel’s relations with the United Arab Emirates are closer than their lack of formal diplomatic relations would suggest, according to an extensive article by Adam Entous published in the New Yorker yesterday.

The article reveals the extent to which shared concerns over Iran have paved the way for closer cooperation between Israel and the Arab world, with a US official claiming he heard the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed say: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” The Crown Prince also reportedly said he could “envision us being in the trenches with Israel fighting against Iran”.

The article reveals that the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research, a government-backed Abu Dhabi think tank, has become “a conduit for contacts with Israel”.

US intelligence agencies were reportedly aware of phone calls between “a senior Emirati leader” and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with secret meetings between Emirati and Israeli officials and political leaders in Cyprus.

On Sunday Netanyahu told the AJC conference in Jerusalem that Israel’s relations with Arab nations were “improving beyond imagination” and predicted that “this will ultimately help achieve peace with our Palestinian neighbours”.

The New Yorker reported that the Israeli-Emirati relationship began in the 1990s, when the UAE sought to purchase F-16 fighters from the US. Rather than protest the sale, then-Washington-based Israeli diplomat Jeremy Issacharoff asked to discuss it with his Emirati counterparts and the Rabin Government eventually raised no objections.

The relationship has since developed through successive US Presidents, with former Israeli Ambassador to US Michael Oren saying in the report: “Obama set out to bring Jews and Arabs closer together through peace. He succeeded through common opposition to his Iran policy”.