Israel’s new foreign minister Yair Lapid is expected to visit the United Arab Emirates (UAE) next week in the first official visit by an Israeli minister to the Gulf state.
Israeli media sources stressed that Lapid would head to the UAE in a two-day visit, from June 29 to 30, to inaugurate an Israeli embassy in Abu Dhabi and a consulate in Dubai.
Lapid was newly appointed in a new government headed by far-right Naftali Bennett, known for his religious and nationalist stance and anti-Palestinian views.
Bennett once said: “I have killed many Arabs in my life, and there is no problem with that.”
The visit came as the UAE and Israel are strengthening the normalisation deal reached between the two countries in August 2020.
Shortly after the deal, Israelis started flocking to the UAE amid large-scale Palestinian and Arab anger.
Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan have followed in the UAE’s footsteps and signed a normalisation deal with Israel.
