JERUSALEM, Israel – Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett landed in Abu Dhabi on Thursday to meet with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and other senior leaders amid rising concerns over Iran’s nuclear program.
Bennett’s office said in a statement that the two leaders will discuss “various regional issues.” Iran is expected to top the agenda.
“I will meet with President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed, a man of vision and a brave leader. Today, together, we will take to the special bond that has been woven between our countries to the next level — for the growth and security of both our peoples,” Bennett said upon leaving Israel.
This is the second time Bennett has publicly visited the UAE since the two countries agreed to normalize ties in 2020 under the Abraham Accords. Both Israel and the UAE consider Iran to be a major threat in the region.
Photo Credit: Kobi Gideon (GPO).
Bennett’s snap visit came just a day after the UN’s atomic watchdog agency voted to censure Iran over its lack of transparency about its activities at three undeclared nuclear sites in the country.
On Thursday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran is planning to rapidly increase its enrichment of uranium with the installation of two cascades of advanced centrifuges.
The visit also came against the backdrop of stalled negotiations in Vienna to restore the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, which was designed to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb. The accord, signed between Germany, China, Britain, France, Iran, Russia and the United States, placed restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
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The deal collapsed in 2018 when former President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from it, arguing that it was weak and poorly negotiated. Shortly after, Iran also abandoned the deal and has been consistently violating the accord’s limits on nuclear activity, like stockpiling highly-enriched uranium.
Reviving the 2015 deal is a key priority for the Biden administration, which argues that the restrictions laid out in the deal were working and any threat Iran currently poses is exponentially more serious if it obtains a nuclear weapon.
Israel has long opposed the original accord, arguing that it doesn’t contain enough safeguards to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
The IAEA said in May that Iran has accumulated enough enriched material to build a nuclear bomb. Tehran may have enough material for a weapon, but developing the capabilities to build a bomb and attach it to a warhead will likely take more time.
Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but Western leaders fear Iran is not being honest about its intentions.
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