Leaked! Netanyahu Secretly Meets Arab Muslim Leaders to Discuss Key Issues
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conducted a secret visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Sunday to meet with President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed. This sudden visit, confirmed by both nations on Monday, was dominated by discussions regarding Iran, an arena where both countries have reportedly deepened their cooperation during the current regional conflict.
Citing CNN International on Tuesday (29/09/202cap), the UAE state news agency (WAM) confirmed that the two leaders held a high-level meeting to discuss bilateral relations and ways to strengthen them. Conversely, the Israeli Prime Minister’s office stated that the meeting focused on strengthening ties and addressing a series of regional challenges.
This silent visit was attended by Netanyahu’s wife, the head of the National Security Council, the head of Mossad, the military secretary, and government political advisers.
This highly unusual trip occurs exactly one month before the Israeli general election on 27 October, against a backdrop of intensifying internal political controversy. Previously, investigative reports from Haaretz and The New York Times alleged that Sheikh Mohammed had actually warned Netanyahu about a major Hamas operation several days before the 7 October 2023 attacks occurred.
Separately, The Atlantic reported that Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel also flew to Israel on 26 September 2023 to warn that Gaza was about to explode. The Wall Street Journal reinforced this narrative on Sunday, reporting three warnings from Egypt, the last of which was delivered directly via telephone to Netanyahu just days before the attack.
Responding to the wave of reporting, Netanyahu’s office has repeatedly denied receiving any warnings and dismissed the reports as fabricated lies intended to damage him electorally. Regarding the UAE, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated earlier this month that it would not comment on media speculation but did not deny the existence of crucial telephone calls, stating, “If necessary, all relevant intelligence has been and continues to be communicated between the relevant entities.”
An Israeli source revealed that Netanyahu’s office had attempted to pressure the UAE to deny the reports, but the UAE only agreed to release a diplomatic statement regarding intelligence-sharing activities. In the official statement on Monday regarding the recent trip, both Israel and the UAE remained silent and did not mention the issue of the 7 October warnings.
As a political counter-move, Netanyahu’s Likud Party released a statement on the Prime Minister’s X account unilaterally accusing UAE-based Palestinian politician Mohammed Dahlan of blatant foreign interference in the Israeli election, without providing any evidence.
The opposition has immediately utilised these warning reports to renew massive attacks on the failures of the Netanyahu regime. Gadi Eizenkot, who currently leads the polls as the main challenger in the upcoming election, asserted on Saturday that these revelations are clear and fatal. “The revelation regarding the warnings leaves no room for doubt: Netanyahu is leading, with blindness, arrogance, and irresponsibility, the State of Israel towards the greatest disaster in its history,” he said.
Much earlier, in May, Netanyahu’s office claimed that the Prime Minister had visited the UAE secretly in March during the early stages of the Iran conflict, labelling it a historic breakthrough. However, the UAE foreign ministry strongly denied the claim, deeming it entirely baseless.
Despite the series of conflicting narratives, Israel has reportedly deployed its flagship Iron Dome missile defence system to the UAE during the war, and Israeli officials have acknowledged that security cooperation between the two nations has reached unprecedented levels, even though Netanyahu has never made a publicly recognised official visit to the UAE.