Dubai | A delegation from the United Arab Emirates visited Israel on Tuesday for the first official visit since normalization between the two countries.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to greet the delegation at Ben-Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, according to an Israeli statement.
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, involved in the standardization process, accompanied the delegation on a flight from the Emirati company Etihad Airways.
“The Emirates are preparing to send their first official delegation to Israel,” tweeted Hend Al-Otaiba, director of strategic communications at the UAE foreign ministry. It is led by Minister of State for Financial Affairs Obaid Al-Tayer and Minister of Economy Abdullah bin Touq Al-Mari.
The Emirates and Israel signed on September 15 in Washington, under the leadership of President Donald Trump, the normalization agreement. Bahrain signed a similar agreement the same day. These two Gulf states are the first Arab countries to normalize relations with the Hebrew state since Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.
The UAE government on Monday ratified the agreement, validated last week by the Israeli parliament.
The Palestinians denounced these agreements between Arab countries and Israel, before a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as a “betrayal”.
Israel and the Emirates are to sign an agreement allowing 28 weekly commercial flights between the two countries, according to an official at Israel’s transport ministry.
“Agreements in the fields of aviation, investment protection, visa exemptions, as well as science and technology” will be signed, the Israeli government said.
A first direct commercial flight had traveled from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi at the end of August, with an official Israeli delegation on board.