US-Israeli delegation lands in Abu Dhabi on historic flight
The Israeli flag carrier El Al’s airliner carrying Israeli and US delegates is seen after landing at Abu Dhabi International Airport in United Arab Emirates on Monday.
A US-Israeli delegation led by White House adviser Jared Kushner arrived on Monday in Abu Dhabi, on the historic first commercial flight from Tel Aviv to mark the normalization of ties between the Jewish state and the UAE.
The word “peace” was written in Arabic, English and Hebrew on the cockpit of the El Al flight that landed at the VIP terminal in the Emirates capital where US flags flew alongside the Star of David banner.
“While this is a historic flight, we hope that it will start an even more historic journey in the Middle East and beyond,” Kushner, who is President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and a key architect of his Middle East policy, said before boarding.
“The future does not have to be predetermined by the past. This is a very hopeful time.”
Saudi Arabia allowed the “historic” flight to cross its airspace, Kushner said at Abu Dhabi shortly after the flight landed. “This is the first time this has ever happened. I would like to thank the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for making that possible.”
The landmark direct flight by Israel’s national carrier, numbered LY971 in a nod to the UAE’s international dialing code, is due to return on Tuesday with the number 972, matching Israel’s dialing code.
The agreement to normalize ties was announced by Trump on August 13, making the UAE the first Gulf country and only the third Arab nation to establish relations with Israel.
Unlike Egypt, which made peace with its former battlefield enemy in 1979, and Jordan, which followed in 1994, the UAE has never fought a war with Israel. The fact the flight also passed through Saudi airspace was a sign of Riyadh’s cooperation with Israel after it refused publicly to normalize relations. However, it skirted the Gulf states of Qatar and Bahrain who have refused to follow the UAE’s move.
Israeli National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat said “our goal is to achieve a joint working plan to advance relations in a very broad range of areas.”
The talks in Abu Dhabi aim to boost cooperation between the two regional economic powerhouses in areas including aviation, tourism, trade, health, energy and security.
