An Israeli-American delegation will travel to the United Arab Emirates on Monday on the “first direct commercial flight” between Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi, corroborating sources said on Friday. "An official Israeli delegation will travel to Abu Dhabi on a direct El-Al airline flight for the first time," a spokesperson for the carrier told AFP on Friday, adding that the flight was to take place on Monday.
In fact, the website of the Israel Civil Aviation Authority posted an EL AL flight from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi on Friday afternoon next Monday morning.
Jared Kushner among the delegation?
The EL AL spokesperson did not specify the identity of the members of the delegation, but White House adviser and son-in-law of President Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, expected in the coming days in Israel, said Thursday. that he would take part in the “first direct commercial flight” between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
"I'm very focused on my next week's trip to the Middle East, I hope we can consolidate this peace agreement very strongly and I hope we can use this breakthrough to have more momentum," he said. he added in an interview with the US news site Politico.
Normalization of relations
Israel and the United Arab Emirates announced on August 13 the normalization of their relations with the project, in particular to operate direct flights between Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi or Dubai, two main cities of the Emirates, and to promote tourism between the two country.
The Emirates and Israel are geographically separated by Saudi Arabia, a country ally of the United States and close to the Emirates, but with which Israel has no official relations.
Saudi airspace
"We have already started discussions to open a line passing over Saudi Arabia which will shorten the flight time between Israel and the Emirates," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week, adding that preparations are 'performed' with a lot of energy '.
The EL AL spokesperson did not say on Friday whether the Tel Aviv-Abu Dhabi flight would cross or bypass Saudi airspace.
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