Israel opens its first embassy in a Gulf country in the United Arab Emirates

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid applauds at the plaque marking the inauguration of his country's Embassy in the United Arab Emirates.HANDOUT / Reuters

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid inaugurated his country's first embassy in a Gulf State on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi.

Lapid, who is also going to open a consulate in Dubai and sign an economic cooperation agreement, is also the first member of the Government of Israel to visit the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since the normalization of relations last September.

Unlike then, however, the Emirati media have lowered the tone of enthusiasm as a result of the unrest generated throughout the Arab world by the conflict in Gaza last May.

More information

• Escalation of violence threatens Israel's rapprochement with the Arab Gulf countries

• Business fever between Israel and Emirates after standardization agreement

During the ceremony, Lapid reiterated that "Israel wants peace with its neighbors, with all its neighbors," according to the transcript provided by the Israeli information office.

And in what is interpreted as a message to Iran, he stressed: “The Middle East is our home.

We are here to stay.

We ask all the countries of the region to accept it ”.

Concern about Tehran's influence in the area, as well as the potential for economic and security cooperation, is at the base of the rapprochement that led the UAE and Bahrain to establish relations with Israel last year.

The Trump Administration's support for the pompously called Abraham Accords also paved the way for Morocco and Sudan to do the same.

In these months, Israel and the UAE have multiplied trade cooperation agreements in the most diverse areas, shared intelligence and established direct flights that have allowed the visit of several tens of thousands of Israeli tourists to the Emirates (Israel remains closed to non-residents due to to the pandemic). Last March, Abu Dhabi announced the creation of an investment fund of 10 billion dollars (8.4 million euros) for strategic sectors in Israel.

In Emirates, the rapprochement was very tangible from the beginning. Within days, Israeli grapefruits appeared on supermarket shelves and wines from Galilee (occupied West Bank for Palestinians) arrived in stores licensed to sell alcohol. The official contacts were also accompanied by warm gestures of friendship on the part of some citizens who disseminated images with the flags of the two countries on social networks or announced that they were beginning to study Hebrew. And an exhibition was even organized to raise awareness among Arabs about the Holocaust.

But the honeymoon was interrupted last May when the umpteenth Israeli-Palestinian conflict broke out, in which 256 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died. The UAE called on both sides, Israel and Hamas, to stop the violence, in what became a test of resistance for the new relationship that Emirati officials said would curb Israeli annexation plans over the West Bank. The discomfort of a good part of the nationals (barely 11% of the 9.5 million inhabitants) began to filter through social networks.

The visit of the new Israeli Foreign Minister (his predecessor was unable to do so due to the efforts of the then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be the first to visit the UAE, something that never happened) provides an opportunity to repair diplomatic damage. Lapid is the architect of the coalition that has ended Netanyahu's rule and is set to replace the current prime minister, Naftali Bennett, within two years.

Significantly, no senior official has met Lapid at the foot of the plane, although he does have an appointment with his Emirati counterpart, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al Nahyan, according to the Israeli statement (the UAE media office has not reported the trip or from the agenda). On Wednesday, already in Dubai, he will inaugurate the Consulate (like the Embassy, ​​still in a temporary location) and will visit the Israel pavilion at Expo2020 (which will open its doors on October 1). The UAE, for its part, officially opened its Embassy, ​​provisionally established in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange building, quietly, at the end of May.