The cabinet of the United Arab Emirates on Monday approved an agreement to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel that was signed in Washington last month, ahead of the first official visit by a UAE government delegation to Israel.
The UAE and fellow Gulf state Bahrain in September became the first Arab states in a quarter of a century to sign agreements to establish formal ties with Israel, forged largely through shared fears of Iran.
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L-R: Bahrain FM Abdullatif al-Zayani, PM Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. President Donald Trump, and Emirati FM Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan at the signing of the Abraham Accords at the White House
(Photo: AFP)
A cabinet statement said the Abraham Accord would be "an avenue of peace and stability to support the ambitions of the region's people, and enhance efforts for prosperity and advancement, especially as it paves the way for deepening economic, culture and knowledge ties."
Israel had ratified the deal in a cabinet vote and a parliamentary vote last week.
A UAE government delegation is due to visit Israel on Tuesday, accompanied by U.S. officials who arrived in Abu Dhabi on Monday from Bahrain, where they had joined an Israeli delegation on a trip to Manama to sign a communique formalizing nascent ties.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin attended the first Abraham Accords Business Summit in the UAE capital where U.S. and Israeli delegations participated in meetings with senior Emirati officials on areas of cooperation, the U.S. embassy tweeted.
Israel and the UAE have already signed several commercial deals since mid-August when they first announced they would normalize ties.
On Monday, they reached a bilateral agreement that will give incentives and protection to investors who make investments in each other's countries.
Also on Monday, a commercial flight from the UAE landed for the first time, at Ben Gurion International Airport.
The Etihad 787-10 Dreamliner arrived with 58 passengers on board and was greeted in a festive ceremony.
Etihad Captain Saleh Abdullah speaks upon the landing of the first commercial flight from UAE
"We are very excited to be here," the flight's captain Saleh Abdullah said. "Hopefully this is the beginning of a good relationship between UAE and Israel and if someone asked me a few months ago if I would be here making a speech in Tel Aviv, I would have said this is impossible," he said.
"Because we have brave men who believe in peace and we have Mohammed bin Zayed and Benjamin Netanyahu, because of them, they work together and we have peace," Captain Abdullah said adding he hoped the region would all live, in peace and harmony.
On Tuesday, Israel and the United Arab Emirates will sign a deal to allow 28 weekly commercial flights between Ben Gurion airport, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the Transportation Ministry said on Sunday.
The aviation deal will be signed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Ben Gurion airport and flights are expected to begin within weeks, the ministry said.
The Etihad airliner will return later in the day to Abu Dhabi carrying Israeli businessmen, tourism industry executives and journalists.
Itay Blumenthal contributed to this report.