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Israel’s typically discreet ties with the United Arab Emirates have been thrust into the open amid the Iran war, after U.S. and Israeli officials raised Israel-UAE cooperation into public view. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee disclosed that Israel sent Iron Dome air-defense weapons and personnel to help protect the UAE from Iranian attacks, putting the alliance’s security dimension on the record. Shortly afterward, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had quietly visited the UAE during the war, prompting the UAE to respond with a swift public denial.
The UAE denial came via a posting by the state news agency WAM, which said “reports circulating” about Netanyahu’s visit were false. The agency said the UAE’s relations with Israel “are public and conducted within the framework of the well-known and officially declared Abraham Accords, and are not based on non-transparent or unofficial arrangements.” WAM also denied that any Israeli military delegation was received in the UAE, as the dispute played out in public after the initial disclosures.
The episode underscored the internal tension Gulf states navigate between discreet wartime cooperation and the domestic and regional political cost of visible alignment with Israel. Hesham Alghannam, a Saudi Arabia-based scholar at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center, said the denial complicated Abu Dhabi’s “wartime-frame posture” by forcing it into the open, and that this was why the denial was issued quickly and “worded so carefully.”
The UAE’s handling of the issue reflects the wider regional backdrop for normalization with Israel. While the UAE normalized relations with Israel in 2020, the article said its rulers preferred to keep the alliance somewhat quiet, citing antipathy toward the Jewish state across Arab and Muslim countries. The war in Gaza, which began after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, has amplified those sensitivities, according to the report.
In describing the Gaza conflict, the report said that Israel’s ensuing offensive has killed over 72,700 Palestinians, citing the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilian and militant deaths. It also described how the conflict has spilled beyond Gaza, with Israel waging campaigns against Iran-backed militants in Lebanon and Yemen, and striking militant targets in Qatar and Syria. That wider regional sweep has increased the strategic pressure on Gulf states to manage their public posture while still seeking security advantages, the report said.
Against that context, the report described why Netanyahu chose to publicize his wartime trip. It said Netanyahu faces fierce domestic opposition ahead of an election season in Israel, and that he believes his image is bolstered if he can show his base that he is a Middle East power broker. It also said that while the Iran war had not substantially helped Netanyahu’s domestic popularity, projecting more regional partnerships—following the UAE’s example—could strengthen his case with voters.
The report said Netanyahu may have expected that broadcasting close Israel-UAE ties could serve as a model for other countries, but suggested expectations could be difficult to fulfill. It contrasted the UAE approach with Saudi Arabia’s strategy, describing Saudi Arabia as maintaining open lines of communication with Tehran and supporting Pakistan’s mediation between the sides, while resisting joining the Abraham Accords. Alghannam said Riyadh’s approach was aimed not at taking a posture on Israel but at refusing “entanglement in a war whose dynamics Riyadh did not set and cannot control.” He also said Riyadh’s willingness to discuss options “openly, with partners” rather than locking into one track is a strategic signal, adding that the regional security architecture would be designed regionally rather than inherited from bilateral Washington-Tehran negotiations.
The report also described what the Israel-UAE alliance is based on. It said the two countries collaborated militarily during the war with Iran, with Israel benefiting from having a defense foothold in a country geographically closer to its archenemy, while the UAE gained access to Israeli military technology, including Iron Dome. It further said the alliance has benefited both countries’ economies, with trade between them rising steadily since 2020.
Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.