Lapid, on UAE trip, opens first Israeli embassy in Gulf
Israel’s top diplomat Yair Lapid opened the Jewish state’s first embassy in the Gulf during a trip to the UAE on Tuesday, nine months after they signed a normalization deal.
He met with his Emirati counterpart, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi, tweeting a picture of the two of them shaking hands shortly after the opening of the embassy.
Lapid earlier also tweeted a photo of himself and UAE minister Noura Al-Kaabi cutting a ribbon in the blue and white of the Israeli flag.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed the opening as “historic.”
Lapid’s visit and the opening of the first Israeli embassy in a Gulf state are “significant for Israel, the
UAE, and the broader region,” he said in a statement.
Israeli ministers have previously visited the UAE, but newly appointed Lapid became the most senior Israeli to make the trip, and the first on an official mission.
“Israel wants peace with its neighbors. With all its neighbors.
We aren’t going anywhere. The Middle East is our home. We’re here to stay. We call on all the countries of the region to recognize that. And to come talk to us,” Lapid said during the opening ceremony.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat said Lapid would meet “five (Emirati) ministers in less than 30 hours.”
Since their US-brokered normalization agreement was signed last September, Israel and the UAE have signed a raft of deals ranging from tourism to aviation and financial services.
Lapid’s trip comes nearly a year after the nations moved to normalize ties.
In August 2020, former White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and Israeli national security adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat made history by flying to Abu
Dhabi on an El Al plane from Israel.
That was feted by both sides as a breakthrough in efforts for peace in the Middle East, marked by the El Al jet touching down adorned with the word “peace” in English, Arabic and Hebrew.
The normalization accords Israel struck last year with the UAE and then also with Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan have been condemned by the Palestinians.
The deals break with years of Arab League policy of no relations with Israel until it makes peace with the Palestinians.
Also on Tuesday, Bahrain appointed its first ambassador to Israel.
Lapid is a centrist former television presenter who tenaciously hammered together Israel’s new coalition, ending Netanyahu’s more than decade-long tenure as prime minister.