Netanyahu visits Abu Dhabi, meets UAE president MBZ

Where Diplomacy Meets News

Netanyahu visits Abu Dhabi, meets UAE president MBZ

September 28, 2026

DUBAI,—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, a senior Israeli official told Reuters.

Neither Netanyahu’s office nor the UAE’s foreign ministry immediately issued a comment on the visit.

Later on Monday, the UAE’s state-run news agency WAM confirmed Netanyahu’s visit and his meeting with Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed.

The visit follows a report by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz this month that Sheikh Mohamed warned Netanyahu about 10 days before October 7, 2023, that Hamas, an Islamic extremist group, was preparing a major attack against Israel.

Haaretz said the warning was not passed to Israeli intelligence agencies or the military.

Netanyahu denies the report and has threatened legal action against the paper.

He is facing a hard fight for reelection, and opposition leaders have accused him of bearing responsibility for security failures before the Hamas deadly attack on Oct. 7.

The UAE has not commented on the Haaretz report. It has stated that it and Israel have held “open and direct lines of communication” since diplomatic relations began in 2020.

A UAE source previously told Reuters that the Emirates discusses security matters with countries through “relevant entities,” and not “at the level of national leaders.”

The Israeli prime minister’s office had said in May that Netanyahu “secretly visited” the Gulf country and met the president.

A source familiar with the meeting said at the time that the two men met on March 26 in Al-Ain, an oasis city in Abu Dhabi along the country’s border with Oman.

The UAE denied that President Sheikh Mohamed met with Netanyahu in March 2026.

Since it came under attack during the Iran war, the UAE has drawn closer to the United States and Israel, with which it opened ties as a result of the 2020 Abraham Accords.

The relationship with Israel gives the UAE a way to gain regional influence and a special channel to Washington.

In May 2026, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said that Israel sent Iron Dome air defense batteries and personnel to operate them in the UAE during the conflict with Iran.

(With files from Reuters, Agencies)