Benyamin Netanyahu had dreamed of this trip. His successor performs it in his stead. On Sunday December 12, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, in power since June, flew to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). He was to meet on Monday with the strong man of the federation, Mohammed Ben Zayed Al-Nahyane, known as “MBZ”.
It is the fruit of the so-called “Abraham” agreements, which have allowed since 2020 the normalization of relations between the Hebrew state with the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and more confusedly with Sudan. Concluded through the Trump administration, the rapprochement with the Emirates gave rise to three travel plans by Mr. Netanyahu, rejected in fine by Abu Dhabi. They did not want to let the former prime minister turn this event into an electoral argument, before the legislative elections of March 2021.
Vow of firmness vis-à-vis Iran
In Abu Dhabi, Mr. Bennett was to continue efforts led by various Israeli officials with their allies in the Middle East, in Washington and in Europe, in order to urge them to show firmness in the face of Iran. Negotiations wanted by the United States resumed in Vienna in December to save what can still be saved from the international Iranian nuclear agreement of 2015. Israel is campaigning for the maintenance of a tight grip. possible, economic and military, around the Islamic Republic.
The Jewish state takes a dim view of the recent trip of Mohammed Ben Zayed’s own brother, Tahnoun, to Tehran, where he met with President Raisi. An embryo of dialogue which aims to reduce tensions with the big Iranian neighbor. At the same time, the Gulf Cooperation Council says it is ready to accept a return to the 2015 nuclear agreement. A position that runs counter to strong criticism of the Arab monarchies and Israel six years ago.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz spoke publicly in Washington for the first time on Friday about a ” Plan B ” of a military nature, in the event that this sluggish dialogue does not succeed. Until now, the United States has been content to stick to a mantra that is not reassuring for its Gulf allies and Israelis by repeating that it does not “Will not let Tehran acquire a nuclear weapon”, while refusing to specify their red lines.
Joint military exercises
Beyond the nuclear threat, Israel and the UAE are concerned about Tehran’s missile arsenal, its attacks on merchant ships in the Persian Gulf, its drone fleet, and its technology transfers to its allies. militiamen in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. In the fall, the Emirati, Israeli and Bahraini armies carried out joint military air and naval exercises, under the aegis of the American regional command, Centcom (United States Central Command), to which Israel has been officially attached since September.
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