The head of the UAE Defense and Foreign Relations Committee, Ali Al-Naimi, said that the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, will visit Israel soon, stressing that the normalization agreement will be signed this month.
In an interview with the Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth website, Al-Naimi confirmed that Washington is working to ensure that the normalization agreement will be attended by the largest number of Arab leaders.
He explained that direct flights between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv will start after the agreement is signed.
Regarding the Palestinian issue, Al-Nuaimi said that the Palestinians are still living in the past, and called on them to return to negotiations, stressing that in the event of a war in Gaza, relations between the UAE and Israel would not be affected.
Al-Nuaimi clarified that the purchase of F-35 fighters is not part of the normalization agreement, and expressed his hope that Israel would support its sale to the Emirates.
Reuters reported that an Emirati delegation will visit Israel on the 22nd of this month, in response to the visit by an Israeli delegation to Abu Dhabi last week, to continue discussions on drafting the terms of the normalization agreement between the two parties.
An informed source indicated that the Tel Aviv visit would set the date for the signing ceremony for the normalization agreement between the UAE and Israel at the White House later this month.
On August 13, Israel and the UAE announced that they would normalize diplomatic relations under an agreement brokered by the United States. Washington and Tel Aviv praised the agreement as a breakthrough, while the Palestinians rejected it.