Israel's Head of Government Yair Lapid visits the Emirates, a first
Yair Lapid has taken the interim reins of the Israeli executive.
AP - DEBBIE HILL
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dreamed of it, his successor, the alternate head of government and also foreign minister, Yair Lapid, did it.
On Tuesday, he becomes the first senior Israeli official to pay an official visit to the United Arab Emirates.
The two countries normalized their relations almost a year ago, in August 2020.
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With our correspondent in Jerusalem,
Sami Boukhelifah
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid is therefore taking off for a two-day visit at the invitation of his Emirati counterpart, Sheikh Abdallah ben Zayed Al-Nahyane.
On the program of this "
historic
"
visit
, the inauguration of the Israeli embassy in Abu Dhabi, and the opening of a consulate in Dubai.
Before him, on numerous occasions, former Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu tried to land his ticket to the Gulf, without success.
His plans were first thwarted by the Covid-19 at the end of last year.
But subsequently, while the Hebrew state was engaged in the midst of an electoral campaign, it was the Emirati who did not wish to receive it.
Faced with her insistence, Abu Dhabi made it clear, in a diplomatic manner, that it refused to interfere in the Israeli legislative elections.
Because Benyamin Netanyahu had a hidden objective.
He wanted through a trip to the Emirates to reap the fruits of normalization by passing for the "peacemaker", in the eyes of the Israelis, on the eve of the vote.
Finally, it is his opponent Yaïr Lapid, who came to power just a few days ago, who takes his photo alongside the sheikhs of the Gulf.
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