Still no visit by the head of the Israeli government to the United Arab Emirates.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, March 11, canceled his first official visit to the Emirates, in the midst of normalizing relations.
According to his office, this is due to a dispute with Jordan over the overflight of the latter's airspace.
Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to meet with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyane, who de facto ruled the Emirates, a Gulf country that recently normalized relations with the Hebrew state, according to Israeli media.
The trip was canceled "due to difficulties in coordinating its flight through Jordanian airspace," his office said in a Hebrew statement, without giving a date for a later visit.
According to this source, the dispute with Amman is linked to Israel's cancellation this week of a planned visit by the Jordanian Crown Prince to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem, a Palestinian sector of the Holy City annexed by the Jordanian government. 'Hebrew State.
The prince's visit was canceled due to "a disagreement over security arrangements there," according to Benjamin Netanyahu's office.
Jordan did not immediately comment on this information.
A new postponement, in full normalization of relations
Israeli media had previously suggested that the prime minister would cancel his visit due to his wife Sara being hospitalized with appendicitis.
The Israeli leader, who is playing for political survival in the legislative elections on March 23, had already postponed his visit to the Emirates and Bahrain in early February due to travel restrictions imposed to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
These two Arab states signed in September 2020 agreements to normalize their relations with Israel negotiated under the aegis of Donald Trump's United States.
In the wake of these agreements, many trade agreements have been signed between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, which has since March 1 an ambassador for the Jewish state.
Benjamin Netanyahu is due to meet with Czech and Hungarian heads of government Andrej Babis and Viktor Orban on Thursday afternoon, March 11, who are traveling to Israel to discuss vaccines and the fight against the coronavirus, his office said.
With AFP
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