The " first commercial flight " direct between the United Arab Emirates and Israel landed Monday August 31 in Abu Dhabi from David Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, a few weeks after the announcement of the normalization of relations between the two countries.
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The plane of the Israeli company El AL, carrying an American-Israeli delegation, landed at 3.39 p.m. local (1.39 p.m. in France), after having flown over Saudi Arabia, a first, according to an AFP team. The delegation is led by Jared Kushner, White House adviser and son-in-law of US President Donald Trump.
Standardized relationships
“ It's a historic flight and we hope it is also the start of an even more historic journey to the Middle East and beyond, ” Jared Kushner said on the tarmac at Ben Gurion Airport, before take off. A red carpet was rolled out at the bottom of the bridge of the Star of David Boeing 737 whose cockpit was decorated with the Israeli, Emirati and American flags and flying LY971.
The United Arab Emirates and Israel on August 13 announced an agreement to normalize their relations, unofficial for years, with the Emirates becoming the first Gulf country to change the status of its relationship with Israel, and the third in the Arab world, after l 'Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. Since the announcement of the agreement, sponsored by the United States, Israel and the Emirates have increased telephone exchanges between ministers and Abu Dhabi this weekend repealed an old law of 48 years on the boycott of Israel.