Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly travelled to Abu Dhabi on Sunday, September 27, where he met with United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, according to a senior Israeli official who spoke to Reuters.
The visit was not publicly announced by Netanyahu’s office before it took place. Israeli media, including Channel 12, reported that Netanyahu travelled to Abu Dhabi on a private aircraft for the meeting. Reuters subsequently confirmed the visit through a senior Israeli official.
Neither Netanyahu’s office nor the UAE Foreign Ministry immediately issued a public statement about the meeting.
The meeting comes at a sensitive moment in relations between Israel and the UAE and follows renewed attention to reports about a warning Sheikh Mohamed allegedly gave Netanyahu shortly before Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz recently reported that Sheikh Mohamed had warned Netanyahu roughly a week and a half before the attack that Hamas was planning a major operation. According to the report, the warning was not passed on to Israeli intelligence agencies or the military. Netanyahu has denied the report and threatened legal action against the newspaper.
The reported meeting therefore comes as questions surrounding the alleged 2023 warning have resurfaced in Israeli public debate. Opposition figures have accused Netanyahu of responsibility for security failures preceding the October 7 attack, while Netanyahu has rejected the allegations.
The UAE has previously said that it and Israel have maintained open and direct channels of communication since establishing diplomatic relations under the Abraham Accords in 2020. However, the Emirati government has not publicly confirmed the latest Netanyahu-Sheikh Mohamed meeting.
The latest encounter is also notable because of an earlier dispute over an alleged secret Netanyahu visit to the UAE in March. Netanyahu’s office said in May that he had met Sheikh Mohamed in Al Ain during the Iran war, but the UAE Foreign Ministry denied at the time that the meeting had taken place.
Details of Sunday’s discussions have not been officially released. Israeli media reports indicate that the visit was intended to remain confidential, with a coordinated statement reportedly expected after the Israeli delegation returned home.
The meeting highlights the continuing high-level communication between Israel and the UAE, even as the two countries navigate wider regional tensions and renewed scrutiny of their security relationship.
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