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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly visited the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at the height of the U.S. and Israel’s war on Iran, Netanyahu’s office said in a statement released on Wednesday.

“The visit has led to a historic breakthrough in relations between Israel and the UAE,” the office claimed, after stating that Netanyahu had met with the UAE’s president, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

The UAE denied the visit in a statement just hours later. It asserted that its relationship with Israel is “not based on secrecy or clandestine arrangements,” and thus “any claims regarding undisclosed visits or arrangements are baseless unless issued by the relevant official authorities in the UAE.”

The UAE normalized relations with Israel through the Abraham Accords in 2020, and was the first state to sign on to the normalization agreement, which established formal diplomatic ties as well as economic cooperation between Israel and the Gulf country. Throughout Trump’s time in office, he has pursued adding Saudi Arabia to the agreement, but has not been able to secure their inclusion in the accords.

Cooperation between the UAE and Israel has........

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