Yossi Cohen secretly visited Emirates over the past year to broker agreement, reports say, and it was boosted by cooperation in fight against coronavirus pandemic
TOI staff Today, 8:09 am
The director of the Mossad spy agency visited the United Arab Emirates several times to broker the historic accord to normalize ties between the UAE and Israel, and was Jerusalem’s point man for arranging the agreement, according to reports on Thursday.
The deal was boosted by cooperation between the two countries in the struggle against the coronavirus pandemic, according to Israel’s Channel 12 and The New York Times.
Mossad head Yossi Cohen made several clandestine trips to the UAE in the past year, and the Mossad arranged for secret shipments of medical equipment from Israel to the UAE after the onset of the pandemic, the Times reported.
Cohen has met often with representatives of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and Egypt in a years-long effort to build relations with the Gulf States, the Times said.
Channel 12 added that establishing relations with Arab states is considered the responsibility of the Mossad.
A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office Thursday night said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had called Cohen and “thanked him for the Mossad’s help over the years in developing ties with Gulf nations, which helped the peace deal come to fruition.”
On Friday morning Channel 12 reported that various former senior officials had called Cohen the previous night to congratulate him on his work.
“I didn’t think I’d be so emotional,” it quoted Cohen as saying Thursday. “A bit like a schoolboy.
“Yesterday was a very exciting day for Mossad,” he said. “Our job in Mossad isn’t only to prevent war or to stop terror attacks against Israel, but also to identify opportunities for peace across the region and to give it our all to promote them. That’s what we did, and it is a feeling of huge satisfaction for all the workers of Mossad who toiled on this important effort and contributed to its advancement. I’m proud of them.”
Jerusalem and Abu Dhabi, which share a common foe in Iran, already had well established intelligence and security relations, which were kept quiet but considered an open secret.
The joint opposition to Iran was a significant factor in the decision to normalize relations, and security arrangements between the two states will continue and will be strengthened in the future, Channel 12 said.
In June, Netanyahu announced that Israel and the UAE were cooperating in the fight against the pandemic, and last month, companies from Israel and the UAE signed an agreement to join forces to research and develop technology in the fight against the coronavirus.
Group 42, an Abu Dhabi-based technology company, signed a memorandum of understanding with Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries, according to the Emirati state news agency WAM.
Two direct flights from the UAE landed at Ben Gurion Airport in recent months with aid for the Palestinian Authority, in what was seen as a further sign of normalization with Israel. The PA rejected the aid on those grounds.
In May, a senior official at one of the country’s leading hospitals said several states in the Gulf, including the UAE and Bahrain, were actively engaged in cooperation with Israel’s health system.
A shipment of 100,000 coronavirus test kits delivered to Israel in March by the Mossad came from the UAE, the Ynet news site reported.
Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump, and his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner all said Thursday that they expected more Arab states to follow the UAE’s lead and normalize ties with Israel.
Senior Israeli officials reportedly said Thursday that they are in advanced talks with Bahrain about normalizing ties with the Gulf state, hours after the announcement on ties with the UAE.
Bahrain is expected to be the next country to establish official ties with Israel, a senior official told the Kan public broadcaster.
Israel and the United Arab Emirates announced their agreement Thursday afternoon. They “agreed to the full normalization of relations between Israel and the UAE,” they said in a joint statement with the US that was released by Trump.
Israel agreed to suspend annexation of parts of the West Bank as part of the deal.
Friendly Arab states, including Egypt, Bahrain, and a Saudi official welcomed the accord.
Content retrieved from: https://www.timesofisrael.com/mossad-chief-reportedly-spearheaded-deal-with-uae-made-several-trips-to-gulf/.
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