The telephone link between the United Arab Emirates and Israel began to operate on Sunday, August 16, after the two countries have just opened diplomatic relations.

Journalists from the US news agency AP in Jerusalem and Dubai were able to call each other from landlines and cellphones.

First concrete sign of the agreement

So far, in the United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven emirates located in the Arabian Peninsula, a recorded message in Arabic and English has been broadcast saying that calls to +972, the phone code for Israel, could not be completed.

The advent of Internet calls made it possible to circumvent the ban, even if they were often interrupted. Some in Israel used Palestinian mobile phone numbers, to which calls from the United Arab Emirates were allowed.

The connection of the telephone service represents the first concrete sign of the agreement between the Emiratis and the Israelis.

Israel and the United Arab Emirates announced on Thursday that they were establishing full diplomatic relations under a deal brokered by the United States that required Israel to end its contentious plan to annex the occupied lands of West Bank.

With AP

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