Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu postponed a trip to the United Arab Emirates, scheduled for Thursday (11), after the Jordanian government delayed authorization to use its airspace.
The meeting with Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah would be the prime minister’s first trip to the country after relations normalized last year – and it becomes more important as Netanyahu is on the eve of another election in Israel, scheduled for March 23 national election in two years.
The historic agreement, signed in August with the help of the government of former President Donald Trump, provides for bilateral agreements for “investments, tourism, direct flights, security, telecommunications, technology, energy. , health, culture, the environment and the creation of embassies “.
Until then, the UAE did not recognize or maintain formal diplomatic or economic relations with the Israelis.
The delay in clearing the airspace, in turn, would be in retaliation for the cancellation of a visit by Jordan’s Crown Prince Hussein bin Al Abdullah to the Al Aqsa Mosque complex in Jerusalem on Wednesday (10) , due to a dispute over the security measures in place.
Commenting on the friction with Jordan, Netanyahu told a press conference that there was a “misunderstanding, difficulties in coordinating flights because of an incident yesterday. [quarta-feira]”.
“It took us a few hours to fix things. Now I can fly over Jordan, but until this coordination was done it was not possible to visit [os Emirados Árabes Unidos]”, continued.
Netanyahu said he spoke on the phone with the crown prince and the two agreed to postpone the visit “very soon”.
The United Arab Emirates, according to the Israeli, intends “to invest a gigantic amount of 10 billion US dollars in various projects”, although he did not specify the nature or the timetable of these projects.
The prime minister also mentioned that Israel and the Gulf state wanted to create a “green passport” between the two countries, citing a program to ease the passage of those who have received the coronavirus vaccine.
The UAE did not officially confirm the planned visit, which was published by Israeli media on Wednesday.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi has confirmed the cancellation of the Crown Prince’s visit to Al Aqsa.
According to Al-Safadi, Israeli officials tried to change a program agreed with Amman in a way they felt was detrimental to the religious rights of Palestinians and Muslims. “The crown prince [da Jordânia] did not want to allow Israel to impose restrictions on Muslims, ”he said.
The Hashemite dynasty in Jordan is the guardian of the Al Aqsa complex, a symbol of the struggle for the creation of a Palestinian state and one of the holiest sites in Islam.
Israel, which struck a peace deal with Jordan in 1994, maintains security checks around the site, which Jews revere as a remnant of their two ancient temples.
Jordan claims that Israel, which conquered East Jerusalem, including the old walled city where Al Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Middle East War, has no sovereign rights over the complex and has long been irritated by tours organized by religious Jews.