Disclosure of secret meetings between the UAE and Israel mediated by Blair
Israel Hayon revealed that meetings between the UAE and Israel were held over many years before the normalisation agreement was reached
An Israeli media disclosed a secret meeting between the UAE and Israel that took place over the years, which were mediated by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The Israeli newspaper “Israel Hayom” reported that Blair, former chair of International Quartet envoy, played an important role in disseminating the alliance between Israel and the UAE, which was announced last month under American auspices.
The newspaper quoted Blair as saying that he worked to organize numerous secret meetings between Yitzhak Molcho, the former special envoy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and an Emirati minister, whose name has not been revealed, in both London, Abu Dhabi and the Cypriot capital, Nicosia.
The newspaper noted that the meetings held by Molcho and the Emirati minister over the years paved the way for a complete alliance between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv. Molcho worked to institutionalize relations between them and bring them out of the secret into the open.
Although the investigation is based on testimonies of officials in the Israeli political arena, the newspaper confirmed that Blair, in contact with its political correspondent Ariel Kahane, the author of the investigation, approved everything in it.
According to the newspaper, the secret meetings between the Emirati minister and Molcho extended from 2015 to 2018, when the latter was forced to resign under suspicion of committing a misdemeanour corruption through his work in Netanyahu’s office.
In the meeting with the newspaper, Blair confirmed that the meetings between Molcho and the Emirati minister took place with his participation and coordination, and then continued bilaterally.
The newspaper pointed out that the meetings between Molcho and the Emirati minister contributed to restoring confidence between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv after the assassination of the leader of the “Hamas” movement, Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh, in Dubai in 2010.
Kahana highlighted the fact that Molcho worked during the secret meetings with the Emirati minister to transmit messages from Netanyahu to the Emirati leadership, which then developed into phone calls between Netanyahu and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, while these contacts were crowned by the visit that Netanyahu paid in 2018. It was finally revealed by the newspaper “Yedioth Ahronoth”.
Blair stressed in the investigation that although Israel’s retreat from implementing the annexation plan contributed to providing an environment for the overt declaration of the alliance, it was the secret meetings that he coordinated between Molcho and the Emirati minister that launched the path of normalization between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv.
