Israel's cabinet authorises peace treaty with United Arab Emirates
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Israel's cabinet on Tuesday authorised its peace treaty with United Arab Emirates afterPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the UAE's Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan spoke on the phone.
The United States had brokereda "historic peace agreement" between the two countries called the 'Abraham Accord'.
Netanyahu, for his part, told the Israeli cabinet that he had spoken at the weekend with his "friend" Sheikh Mohammed, who is crown prince of Abu Dhabi and effective ruler.
"I invited him to visitIsrael, he invited me to visit Abu Dhabi, but before that we'll see here a delegation from the UAE, and another delegation of ours will go there," the prime minister said.
The normalisation deals signed the same day with both the United Arab Emirates and fellow Gulf state Bahrain "reflect the dramatic change inIsrael's regional standing", he said.
In a sign of burgeoning Israel-UAE cooperation, a ship from the UAE docked on Monday at Israel's port of Haifa, carrying a cargo of 15 containers along a shipping line between India, the UAE, Israel and the United States.
While the normalisation accord has already inspired commercial deal-making with the Gulf's trade, finance, tourism and travel hub, Israeli officials have objected to the UAE's potential purchase of U.S.-made F-35 stealth fighter jets in a separate side deal.
Israel is the only Middle East country flying the advanced warplane and has voiced concern its supply to other nations in the region could jeopardise its military edge.