In a first, Israeli jet flies over S Arabia

An Israeli plane crossed through Saudi Arabian

airspace for the first time on Monday as it carried a delegation of Israeli and American officials, including senior White House advisers Jared Kushner and Robert O’Brien, to a historic round of peace talks in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Kingdom allowed the El Al Israel Airlines flyover after the UAE and Israel agreed this month to establish ties - a first between the Jewish state and a Gulf Arab nation. Talks during this first round will focus on economic issues, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has said.

DUBAI: An Israeli airplane crossed through Saudi Arabian airspace for the first time on Monday as it carried a delegation of Israeli and American officials, including senior White House advisers Jared Kushner and Robert O’Brien, to a historic round of peace talks in the UAE.

The kingdom allowed the El Al Israel Airlines flyover after the UAE and Israel agreed this month to establish ties - a first between the Jewish state and a Gulf Arab nation. Talks during this first round will focus on economic issues, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has said.

Ivanka Trump, the US president’s daughter, tweeted a video of Kushner, her husband and a senior adviser to President Donald Trump, and O’Brien, the national security adviser, on the flight.

The opening of Saudi skies, closed because the countries have never had diplomatic relations, reflects the growing willingness by Gulf Arab states to publicly recognise their warming ties with Israel. At the root of this willingness to end decades of hostility is a shared antipathy towards Iran, which Israel and the Gulf Arab states deem a threat to their national security.

Trump and Netanyahu are expected to discuss the possible sale of the planes, Kushner, Trump’s point man on West Asia, told reporters on the flight to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE.

“The military relationship that America has with the United Arab Emirates is very special,” Kushner said. Israel’s qualitative military edge “is something that can be respected while also advancing our military relationship with the United Arab Emirates”.

Defence officials were left out of the Israeli delegation as the controversy over the potential F-35 sale persisted.