Israel will be inaugurating in the coming weeks its first official diplomatic mission in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Friday.
Advertisement
The mission will operate under the International Renewable Energy Agency, of which Israel is a member, foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon told AFP.
Israel has had strenuous relationships with Arab countries in the Middle East since its foundation and does not conduct diplomatic contacts with them, with the exceptions of Egypt and Jordan, with whom Israel signed peace treaties in 1979 and 1994, respectively.
Also incensing UAE authorities was the 2010 assassination in a Dubai hotel room of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a senior operative in the Islamic militant group Hamas.
Israel has opened trade and other offices in some Gulf states before, but there are no official ties. Several years ago there had been competition between the UAE and Germany to host the IRENA offices and Israel has supported the Gulf state in the hope that it would be allowed to post a representative to the organization. Local police there said it was carried out by Israel and the operation is widely attributed to its Mossad spy agency.
Masdar officials referred questions to IRENA and the Emirates’ Foreign Affairs Ministry.
Advertisement
Dore Gold, director-general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, visited Abu Dhabi earlier this week to participate in the biannual meeting of the IRENA Council.
