Netanyahu's Office Says He Made Secret Wartime Visit to UAE; Emirates Flatly Denies It Happened

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office claimed Wednesday that he had quietly visited the United Arab Emirates earlier this spring at the height of Israel's joint war with the United States against Iran — a wartime trip the Israeli government described as producing a "historic breakthrough" in Gulf relations, but which the Emirati foreign ministry on Thursday flatly denied took place. The dueling statements have ignited a diplomatic firestorm in a region already badly destabilized by the Iran conflict and have left analysts scrambling to figure out who is telling the truth.

In its initial announcement, Netanyahu's office said the prime minister had flown secretly to Abu Dhabi "in the midst of Operation Roaring Lion," the Israeli code name for the air campaign against Iran, and had met with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, known as MBZ. An accompanying briefing distributed to Israeli reporters claimed that MBZ personally drove Netanyahu from the airport to his palace and that the two leaders agreed on joint military and intelligence cooperation, including discussions of additional Israeli air-defense deployments to Emirati soil. The Times of Israel and Channel 12 reported the visit took place in late March or early April.

The UAE responded with an unusually direct statement Thursday morning, calling the Israeli account "fabricated" and saying through its Ministry of Foreign Affairs that "the country's relations with Israel are public and were established within the framework of the well-known and publicly declared Abraham Accords. These relations are not based on secrecy or clandestine arrangements." A senior Emirati official, speaking on condition of anonymity to Al Jazeera, went further, calling the claim "an act of political theater designed for Israeli domestic consumption" as Netanyahu faces mounting pressure from coalition partners ahead of a confidence vote in the Knesset later this month.

Iran's reaction was swift and venomous. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, writing on X, said: "Collusion with Israel in the midst of our war is unforgivable. Netanyahu has now publicly revealed what Iran's security services long ago conveyed to our leadership. Those colluding with Israel to sow division will be held to account." Iranian state television replayed the statement on a loop throughout Thursday afternoon and aired previously unseen drone footage that it claimed showed Israeli air-defense systems being uncrated at Al Dhafra Air Base, an Emirati installation that also houses U.S. forces. The footage could not be independently verified.

The flap comes just one day after U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee publicly confirmed that Israel had supplied Iron Dome batteries — along with the personnel needed to operate them — to the UAE during the early phase of the Iran war. Huckabee told the right-wing Israeli outlet Israel Hayom that the transfer was "an act of brotherhood between two American allies under attack from the same enemy." Diplomats in Washington said the contradiction between the Israeli and Emirati statements was likely to complicate negotiations on a long-discussed regional integration agreement that the Trump administration has been trying to broker since taking office, and which would link Israeli, Emirati, and Saudi air-defense networks.