First-ever direct flight between UAE, Israel takes off

TEL AVIV/DUBAI: An Israeli-American delegation flew on the first commercial flight from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi to put final touches on a controversial pact establishing diplomatic relations.

The El Al flight left from Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv is carrying a delegation led on the American side by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and White House advisor Jared Kushner. The Israeli team is led by National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat.

Flight LY971 flew over Saudi Arabia airspace after Riyadh agreed to the Israeli request on Sunday. The word “peace” was painted on the plane’s cockpit in Arabic, English and Hebrew.

The agreement between Israel and the Emirates to normalise ties was announced on 13th August, making the UAE the first Gulf country and only the third Arab nation to establish relations with Israel, after Egypt and Jordan.

The scheduled talks in Abu Dhabi aims at boosting cooperation between the two regional economic powerhouses in areas including aviation, tourism, trade, health, energy and security.

The flight by Israel’s national carrier is numbered 971 like the UAE’s international dialling code. The return flight, set to leave Abu Dhabi on Tuesday morning, is numbered 972 — Israel’s international dialling code.

Late Sunday, Israel’s health ministry updated its list of “green countries” with low coronavirus infection rates to include the UAE and eight other countries. This means the Israeli officials and journalists travelling to Abu Dhabi would be exempted from a 14-day quarantine upon return.

Since the agreement between the UAE and Israel was unveiled, there have been phone calls between their ministers, and the UAE in a new milestone repealed a 1972 law boycotting Israel.

“It will be permissible to enter, exchange or possess Israeli goods and products of all kinds in the UAE and trade in them,” read a federal decree issued by UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking alongside Kushner in Jerusalem on Sunday, praised “the swift pace of normalisation” between his country and the UAE, saying it opens the door for “unbridled trade, tourism, investments, exchanges between the Middle East’s two most advanced economies”.

As part of the normalisation agreement announced by Trump, Israel agreed to suspend its planned annexations in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinians dubbed the UAE’s agreement with Israel a “stab in the back” as their own conflict remains unresolved.

Saudi Arabia said it will not follow the UAE’s example until Israel has signed a peace deal with the Palestinians establishing an independent Palestinian state.